Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Language

English

Publication Date

1-24-2023

Journal

Neurology

DOI

10.1212/WNL.0000000000201426

PMID

36257718

PMCID

PMC9897052

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

January 2023

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Declines in stroke admission, IV thrombolysis (IVT), and mechanical thrombectomy volumes were reported during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a paucity of data on the longer-term effect of the pandemic on stroke volumes over the course of a year and through the second wave of the pandemic. We sought to measure the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volumes of stroke admissions, intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), IVT, and mechanical thrombectomy over a 1-year period at the onset of the pandemic (March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021) compared with the immediately preceding year (March 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020).

METHODS: We conducted a longitudinal retrospective study across 6 continents, 56 countries, and 275 stroke centers. We collected volume data for COVID-19 admissions and 4 stroke metrics: ischemic stroke admissions, ICH admissions, IVT treatments, and mechanical thrombectomy procedures. Diagnoses were identified by their

RESULTS: There were 148,895 stroke admissions in the 1 year immediately before compared with 138,453 admissions during the 1-year pandemic, representing a 7% decline (95% CI [95% CI 7.1-6.9];

DISCUSSION: There was a global decline and shift to lower-volume centers of stroke admission volumes, ICH volumes, and IVT volumes during the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the prior year. Mechanical thrombectomy volumes were preserved. These results suggest preservation in the stroke care of higher severity of disease through the first pandemic year.

TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: This study is registered under NCT04934020.

Keywords

Humans, Brain Ischemia, COVID-19, Follow-Up Studies, Intracranial Hemorrhages, Pandemics, Retrospective Studies, SARS-CoV-2, Stroke, Stroke Volume, Thrombectomy, Thrombolytic Therapy, Treatment Outcome

Published Open-Access

yes

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