• Joyce Antony, William Thomas James, Anna Jolly Neriamparambil, Dwarkesh Dharmendra Barot, and Teresa Withers.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast, Australia; School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: joyce.antonysa@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2020 Jul 1; 139: e864-e871.

ObjectiveThis study was designed to assess the impact of public health policy in Australia in response to the coronavirus disease identified in 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the delivery of neurosurgical services. Being essential services, we postulated that there would not be a decrease in elective and emergency neurosurgical presentations and surgeries.MethodsThis is a prospective, observational, epidemiologic study in strict adherence to the "STROBE" (Strengthening The Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology) guidelines. It is a cross-sectional, multicentric study involving 5 tertiary neurosurgical centers to capture all public neurosurgical admissions in Queensland during the past 3 months (February-April, 2020) of significant public health policy changes to combat COVID-19.ResultsAn analysis of the 1298 admissions for the Queensland population of 5.07 million Australians demonstrated a decrease in the number of elective and emergency admissions. The decline in elective admissions, particularly degenerative spine, benign neoplasms, and vascular pathologies, was a direct response of government strategy to curb activity to urgent surgical interventions only. Moreover, a trend toward fewer emergency admissions was also noted, partly explained by less trauma and also a decline in vascular pathologies including subarachnoid hemorrhage.ConclusionsIn comparison with Europe and North America, this study demonstrates the impact of proactive public health measures in Australia that successfully flattened the COVID-19 curve while facilitating ongoing care of acutely unwell neurosurgical patients.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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