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. 2022 Nov;129(11):1377-1385.
doi: 10.1007/s00702-022-02484-7. Epub 2022 Mar 4.

Best practice approaches to outpatient management of people living with Parkinson's disease during the COVID-19 pandemic

Antonia F Demleitner  1 , Andreas W Wolff  1 , Johanna Erber  2 , Friedemann Gebhardt  3 , Erica Westenberg  1   4 , Andrea S Winkler  1   4   5 , Susanne Kolbe-Busch  6 , Iris F Chaberny  6 , Paul Lingor  7   8   9
Affiliations

Best practice approaches to outpatient management of people living with Parkinson's disease during the COVID-19 pandemic

Antonia F Demleitner et al. J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2022 Nov.

Abstract

The prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) is rising, rendering it one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases. Treatment and monitoring of patients require regular specialized in- and outpatient care. Patients with PD are more likely to have a complicated disease course if they become infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Regular in-hospital appointments place these patients at risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 due to travel and contact with other patients and staff. However, guidelines for the management of outpatients with PD during times of increased risk of infection are currently lacking. These are urgently needed to conduct risk-benefit evaluations to recommend the best medical treatment. This article discusses best practice approaches based on the current literature, as suggested by the multidisciplinary Network of University Medicine (NUM) in Germany. These include measures such as mask-wearing, hand hygiene, social distancing measures, and appropriate testing strategies in outpatient settings, which can minimize the risk of exposure. Furthermore, the urgency of appointments should be considered. Visits of low urgency may be conducted by general practitioners or via telemedicine consultations, whereas in-person presentation is required in case of moderate and high urgency visits. Classification of urgency should be carried out by skilled medical staff, and telemedicine (telephone or video consultations) may be a useful tool in this situation. The currently approved vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are safe and effective for patients with PD and play a key role in minimizing infection risk for patients with PD.

Keywords: Best practice; COVID-19; Management; Outpatients; Parkinson’s disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Factors to consider when deciding whether an in-person visit or a telemedicine visit is preferred. VOC variant of concern. *Comorbidities predisposing to worse outcome in COVID-19, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, chronic lung or kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, immune deficiency, or cancer
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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