Increasing Traumatic Brain Injury Incidence during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Emergency Department of Cipto Mangunkusumo National General Hospital-A National Referral Hospital in Indonesia

OBJECTIVE: Evaluating the TBI incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic era compared with similar period in previous year. BACKGROUND: The emergence of SARS-CoV2 influenced the evolution of governmental and hospital policy worldwide, which might eventually impact many aspects. The incidence of many diseases in the Emergency Department (ED), especially traumatic brain injury (TBI), has been an area of interest. DESIGN/METHODS: Retrospective study comparing TBI incidence before and during COVID-19 pandemic era starting from the declaration of national pandemic date (March 16, 2020) until June 14, 2020 with the comparison of the same period in the previous year. RESULTS: There was an increase in admission rate due to TBI during COVID-19 pandemic compared with the previous year (157/752 (20.9%) vs 106/766 (13.8%), p < 0.001, respectively). While the range of age was similar between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 era (37.9 ± 14.8 vs 38.6 ± 15.4 years, p = 0.712), male was higher in percentage to experience the injury (131/157 (83.4%) vs 67/106 (63.2%), p < 0.001). During the pandemic era, road traffic injury (97/157 (61.8%) vs 56/106 (52.8%), p = 0.149) as well as moderate-to-severe brain injury tended to increase (30/157 (19.1%) vs 17/106 (16.0%) p = 0.524) albeit statistically insignificant. Although the mortality rate was similar (12/157 (7.6%) vs 9/106 (8.5%), p = 0.804), higher hospitalization rate was observed in the pandemic era (81/157 (51.2%) vs 37/106 (34.9%) p = 0.008). CONCLUSIONS: TBI incidence remained increasing despite entering the COVID-19 era. These phenomena required further investigation and analysis that may possibly be unrelated with the COVID-19, but due to the change of the government policy and its impact, such as the more quiet road after national social distancing.