title: Emergency neurosurgical referrals in the North East of England - trends over four years 2008-2011.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  On-call referrals are a considerable part of the neurosurgical workload. Many neurosurgical centres in the UK have now adopted the practice of maintenance of electronic databases to keep records of on-call activity. We analysed the neurosurgical on-call referrals database maintained at the Newcastle General Hospital (NGH)/Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) to assess any trends in the nature of referrals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective review and statistical analysis of a contemporaneously populated referrals database, maintained at the Regional Neurosciences Unit in Newcastle. Data were analysed from August 2008 to April 2011. A three point moving average was used to depict trend in the number of referrals. Descriptive statistics were used to display other trends. Analysis was conducted using JMP 8.0.2 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our analysis reveals that the number of emergency referrals to neurosurgery in the North East of England is increasing year-on-year. Mean number of referrals per day has increased by almost 5 over the study period (9.06 in 2008 compared to 13.93 in 2011). The major diagnoses that account for this increase are lumbar degenerative conditions, intracerebral haematomas, spinal trauma and subarachnoid haemorrhage. 50% of the patients are referred out of hours and approximately one-third are admitted. In contrast, 47% of all referrals to rule out a cauda equina syndrome, need admission for scanning. General practitioners (GP) are the single biggest source of referral outside of the parent NHS trust and 47% of the GP referrals are regarding lumbar degenerative conditions and cauda equina syndrome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Continuously increasing referrals have implications on cost, staffing and sustainability of the service. Alternative referral pathways, especially for referrals from primary care, must be considered to restore the on-call workload to 'true' neurosurgical emergencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mukerji
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paluzzi
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crossman
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nissen
mesh_terms: D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000601:surgery; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D004739:England; D058006:General Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013124:Spinal Injuries / Q000601:surgery