Endovascular thrombectomy at low-volume centres: A Bayesian solution.

PURPOSE: Endovascular treatment (EVT) is traditionally performed by neurointerventional radiologists at tertiary medical centres imposing long transport ways to large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke patients in rural areas. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the technical and clinical results over time at Stavanger University Hospital, a hospital without neurointerventional expertise, where trained general interventional radiologist performs EVT. METHODS: All patients with LVO stroke treated with EVT from May 2009 to December 2018 were included in the analysis. Technical outcome was measured by the modified treatment in cerebral ischaemia (mTICI) score, functional outcome by the modified Rankin Scale (mRS), complications registered. RESULTS: A total of 235 patients were treated with EVT. An angiographically good result (mTICI 2b or 3) could be seen in 66.7% of the patients treated the first year. In 2011, the year EVT with stent retrievers was introduced, the recanalization rate rose to 81.8%, and from 2014 onwards, it was stable around 80%. After introduction of aspiration together with stent retrievers in 2012, a good functional outcome (mRS 0-2) was obtained in >40% of the treated patients. In 2018, 61.1% of the patients got a good functional outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Endovascular treatment of LVO stroke performed by general vascular interventional radiologist in close collaboration with diagnostic neuroradiologists and stroke neurologists can achieve technical revascularization results and clinical patient outcomes in line with international recommendations, and the randomized controlled studies performed. This approach may help to introduce EVT in geographical areas where this service is lacking due to the absence of neurointerventional specialists.

Interfacility Transfer of Medicare Beneficiaries With Acute Type A Aortic Dissection and Regionalization of Care in the United States.

BACKGROUND: The feasibility and effectiveness of delaying surgery to transfer patients with acute type A aortic dissection-a catastrophic disease that requires prompt intervention-to higher-volume aortic surgery hospitals is unknown. We investigated the hypothesis that regionalizing care at high-volume hospitals for acute type A aortic dissections will lower mortality. We further decomposed this hypothesis into subparts, investigating the isolated effect of transfer and the isolated effect of receiving care at a high-volume versus a low-volume facility. METHODS: We compared the operative mortality and long-term survival between 16 886 Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with an acute type A aortic dissection between 1999 and 2014 who (1) were transferred versus not transferred, (2) underwent surgery at high-volume versus low-volume hospitals, and (3) were rerouted versus not rerouted to a high-volume hospital for treatment. We used a preference-based instrumental variable design to address unmeasured confounding and matching to separate the effect of transfer from volume. RESULTS: Between 1999 and 2014, 40.5% of patients with an acute type A aortic dissection were transferred, and 51.9% received surgery at a high-volume hospital. Interfacility transfer was not associated with a change in operative mortality (risk difference, -0.69%; 95% CI, -2.7% to 1.35%) or long-term mortality. Despite delaying surgery, a regionalization policy that transfers patients to high-volume hospitals was associated with a 7.2% (95% CI, 4.1%-10.3%) absolute risk reduction in operative mortality; this association persisted in the long term (hazard ratio, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.75-0.87). The median distance needed to reroute each patient to a high-volume hospital was 50.1 miles (interquartile range, 12.4-105.4 miles). CONCLUSIONS: Operative and long-term mortality were substantially reduced in patients with acute type A aortic dissection who were rerouted to high-volume hospitals. Policy makers should evaluate the feasibility and benefits of regionalizing the surgical treatment of acute type A aortic dissection in the United States.