• Ahmed Nabil ElGhamry, Nithish Jayakumar, Mohamed Youssef, Syed Shumon, and Patrick Mitchell.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Apr 1; 148: e689e694e689-e694.

BackgroundCessation of elective procedures and lower bed capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a rise in the waiting lists for surgery, but it is unclear if workload has recovered sufficiently to account for this backlog. We describe the change in neurosurgical workload at a tertiary neurosciences center in the United Kingdom after the first pandemic wave in comparison with the months before and during the first wave.MethodsA retrospective review of theatre records and electronic referrals-between December 1, 2019, and August 31, 2020-was performed. The months of December 2019-February 2020 were designated as pre-COVID months and March-May 2020 were designated as COVID months. The time period from June to August 2020 was designated as post-wave months. Statistical analyses were performed on SPSS v22 (IBM).ResultsReferrals declined from 572 in January to a nadir of 352 in April before a steady rise to August. Referral volumes for degenerative spinal disease and traumatic brain injuries showed a statistically significant change during the year. On average, 212 procedures per month were performed in the pre-COVID months, 167 procedures per month during COVID months, and 232 procedures per month in the post-wave months. The number of patients on the waiting list for scheduled operations rose from March (785 patients) onward to a peak of 997 patients in July.ConclusionsIn the aftermath of COVID-19, higher referral volumes and operative procedures were apparent in the post-wave months as services returned to normal. With the expectation of a second wave of infections, it is unclear whether this will be sustainable.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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