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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant number of changes to elective and emergency neurosurgical practice.Materials and Methods: This paper reports the results of an online survey of Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS) members undertaken between 10th and 24th of June 2020 regarding changes in consent practice in response to COVID-19, as well as the physical challenges experienced while operating under higher levels of personal protective equipment (PPE).Results: Despite the real and substantial risks associated with COVID-19, 23% of surgeons reported they were not made any changes to their usual consent process, and 54% of surgeons indicated that they made reference to COVID-19-associated risks in their written consent documentation. 93% of neurosurgeons reported physical difficulties operating using PPE; 62% reported visors/goggles fogging up, 55% experienced 'overheating', 62% reported fatigue, and 82% of surgeons reported difficulty communicating with the theatre staff.Conclusions: This survey highlights discrepancies in the consent practice between neurosurgeons which needs to be addressed at both local and national levels. The PPE being used in neurosurgical operations is not designed for use with specialist equipment (82% of respondents reported having to remove PPE to use the microscope) and the reported physical difficulties using PPE intraoperatively could significantly impact on both neurosurgeon performance and patient outcomes. This requires urgent attention by NHS procurement and management and should be urgently escalated to trust occupational health authorities as a workplace safety concern.

Introduction: Post cranial surgery readmission, largely caused by surgical site infection (SSI), is a marker of patient-care quality requiring comprehensive discharge planning. Currently, discharge assessment is based on clinical recovery and basic laboratory tests, including C-reactive protein (CRP). Although CRP kinetics have been examined postoperatively in a handful of papers, the validity of CRP as a standalone test to predict SSI is yet to be explored.\ud \ud Methods: A prospective observational study was performed on adult patients undergoing elective cranial surgery over a 3-month period. Laboratory data; CRP, white cell count (WCC), neutrophil cell count (NCC), and clinical data were assessed pre and post-operatively and were evaluated as predictors for safe discharge. Readmission rates within 1 month were recorded.\ud Results: In this study, 68 patients were included. About 8.6% were readmitted due to SSI. A postoperativepeak in CRP was seen on day 2 with a value of 57 in the non-readmitted group, and 115 in the readmitted group. CRP dropped gradually to normal levels by day 5 in the non-readmitted group. A secondary CRP rise at day 5 was noted in the readmitted group with a sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value of 71%, 90%, and 96%, respectively. Interestingly, our ROC analysis indicates that a CRP value of less than 65 predicts safe discharge with a sensitivity of 86%, specificity of 89% and negative predictive value of 98% of safe discharge (area under the curve, AUC: 0.782). No significant difference in other inflammatory markers was found between both groups.\ud \ud Conclusions: CRP increases postoperatively for 4–5 d which could be a physiological response to surgery, however, prolonged elevation or a secondary increase in CRP may indicate an ongoing infection. Our data validate the potential use of CRP levels to predict SSI. A multicentre study is warranted to investigate the role of CRP in predicting SSI.