RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Reports about the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality during the first wave between March and May 2020 showed conflicting results and are limited by single-center or limited regional multicenter datasets. Aim of this analysis covering all German federal states was the comprehensive description of hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS AND RESULTS: We conducted an observational study on hospital routine data (§21 KHEntgG) and included patients with the main diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (ICD 21 and ICD 22). A total of 159 hospitals included 36,329 patients in the database, with 12,497 patients admitted with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and 23,832 admitted with non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI). There was a significant reduction in the number of patients admitted with STEMI (3748 in 2020, 4263 in 2019 and 4486 in 2018; p < 0.01) and NSTEMI (6957 in 2020, 8437 in 2019 and 8438 in 2020; p < 0.01). These reductions were different between the Federal states of Germany. Percutaneous coronary intervention was performed more often in 2020 than in 2019 (odds ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.21) and 2018 (odds ratio 1.20, 95% CI 1.12-1.29) in NSTEMI and more often than in 2018 (odds ratio 1.26, 95% CI 1.10-1.43) in STEMI. The in-hospital mortality did not differ between the years for STEMI and NSTEMI, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In this large representative sample size of hospitals in Germany, we observed significantly fewer admissions for NSTEMI and STEMI during the first COVID-19 wave, while quality of in-hospital care and in-hospital mortality were not affected. Admissions for STEMI and NSTEMI during the months March to May over 3 years and corresponding in-hospital mortality for patients with STEMI and NSTEMI in 159 German hospitals. (p-value for admissions 2020 versus 2019 and 2018: < 0.01; p-value for mortality: n.s.).
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Treatment numbers of various cardiovascular diseases were reduced throughout the early phase of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Aim of this study was to (a) expand previous study periods to examine the long-term course of hospital admission numbers, (b) provide data for in- and outpatient care pathways, and (c) illustrate changes of numbers of cardiovascular procedures. METHODS AND RESULTS: Administrative data of patients with ICD-10-encoded primary diagnoses of cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, ischemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, hypertension, peripheral vascular disease) and in- or outpatient treatment between March, 13th 2020 and September, 10th 2020 were analyzed and compared with 2019 data. Numbers of cardiovascular procedures were calculated using OPS-codes. The cumulative hospital admission deficit (CumAD) was computed as the difference between expected and observed admissions for every week in 2020. In total, 80 hospitals contributed 294 361 patient cases to the database without relevant differences in baseline characteristics between the studied periods. There was a CumAD of -10% to -16% at the end of the study interval in 2020 for all disease groups driven to varying degrees by both reductions of in- and outpatient case numbers. The number of performed interventions was significantly reduced for all examined procedures (catheter ablations: -10%; cardiac electronic device implantations: -7%; percutaneous cardiovascular interventions: -9%; cardiovascular surgery: -15%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides data on the long-term development of cardiovascular patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrating a significant CumAD for several cardiovascular diseases and a concomitant performance deficit of cardiovascular interventions.