Global Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stroke Volumes and Cerebrovascular Events

Thanh N. Nguyen*, Muhammad M. Qureshi, Piers Klein, Hiroshi Yamagami, Robert Mikulik, Anna Czlonkowska, Mohamad Abdalkader, Petra Sedova, Anvitha Sathya, Hannah C. Lo, Ossama Yassin Mansour, Husitha Reddy Vanguru, Emilie Lesaine, Georgios Tsivgoulis, Aaron I. Loochtan, Jelle Demeestere, Ken Uchino, Violiza Inoa, Nitin Goyal, Andreas CharidimouJames E. Siegler, Shadi Yaghi, Diana Aguiar de Sousa, Mahmoud H. Mohammaden, Diogo C. Haussen, Espen Saxhaug Kristoffersen, Virginia Pujol Lereis, Sergio Daniel Scollo, Bruce C.V. Campbell, Alice Ma, James Orton Thomas, Mark W. Parsons, Shaloo Singhal, Lee Anne Slater, Rodrigo Tomazini Martins, Chris Enzinger, Thomas Gattringer, Aminur Rahman, Thomas Bonnet, Noemie Ligot, Sylvie De Raedt, Robin Lemmens, Peter Vanacker, Fenne Vandervorst, Hanne Christensen, Helle Klingenberg Iversen, Thomas Clement Truelsen, Troels Wienecke, Pedro Castro, Tiago T.P. Moreira, SVIN COVID-19 Global Stroke Registry

*Corresponding author for this work

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24 Citations (Scopus)

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 ICD-10 codes or classifications in stroke databases. 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]; p < 0.0001). ICH volumes declined from 29,585 to 28,156 (4.8% [5.1-4.6]; p < 0.0001) and IVT volume from 24,584 to 23,077 (6.1% [6.4-5.8]; p < 0.0001). Larger declines were observed at high-volume compared with low-volume centers (all p < 0.0001). There was no significant change in mechanical thrombectomy volumes (0.7% [0.6-0.9]; p = 0.49). Stroke was diagnosed in 1.3% [1.31-1.38] of 406,792 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was present in 2.9% ([2.82-2.97], 5,656/195,539) of all stroke hospitalizations. 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.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNeurology
Volume100
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)E408-E421
Number of pages14
ISSN0028-3878
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Externally publishedYes

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