Collateral damage - Impact of a pandemic on stroke emergency services.
J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
; 29(8): 104988, 2020 Aug.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-602487
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 pandemic's impact on stroke care is two-fold direct impact of the infection and indirect impact on non-COVID-19 diseases. Anecdotal evidence and clinical observation suggest that there is a decrease in the number of patients presenting with stroke during the pandemic. We aim to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the utilization of stroke emergency services on a single comprehensive stroke center (CSC).METHODS:
We performed a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database and compared all emergency department (ED) encounters, acute stroke admissions (including TIA), and thrombectomy cases admitted in March 2017-2019 to patients admitted in March 2020 at a comprehensive stroke center.RESULTS:
Number of total ED encounters (22%, p=0.005), acute ischemic strokes (40%, p=0.001), and TIAs (60%, p=0.163) decreased between March of 2017-2019 compared to March of 2020. The number of patients undergoing EVT in March 2020 was comparable to March 2017-2019 (p=0.430).CONCLUSION:
A pandemic-related stay-at-home policy reduces the utilization of stroke emergency services at a CSC. This effect appears to be more prominent for ED encounters, all stroke admissions and TIAs, and less impactful for severe strokes. Given the relatively low prevalence of COVID-19 cases in our region, this decrement is likely related to healthcare seeking behavior rather than capacity saturation.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Needs Assessment
/
Stroke
/
Emergency Medical Services
/
Health Services Needs and Demand
/
Neurology
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis
Journal subject:
Vascular Diseases
/
Brain
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
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