Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on ischemic stroke admissions and in-hospital mortality in North-West Spain

Background and purpose Spain has been one of the countries heavily stricken by COVID-19. But this epidemic has not affected all regions equally. We analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital stroke admissions and in-hospital mortality in tertiary referral hospitals from North-West Spain.Methods Spanish multicenter retrospective observational study based on data from tertiary hospitals of the NORDICTUS network. We recorded the number of patients admitted for ischemic stroke between 30 December 2019 and 3 May 2020, the number of IVT and EVT procedures, and in-hospital mortality.Results In the study period, 2737 patients were admitted with ischemic stroke. There was a decrease in the weekly mean admitted patients during the pandemic (124 vs. 173, p<0.001). In-hospital mortality of stroke patients increased significantly (9.9% vs. 6.5%, p = 0.003), but there were no differences in the proportion of IVT (17.3% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.405) or EVT (22% vs. 23%, p = 0.504).Conclusion We found a decrease in the number of ischemic stroke admissions and an increase in in-hospital mortality during the COVID-19 epidemic in this large study from North-West Spain. There were regional changes within the network, not fully explained by the severity of the pandemic in different regions.Peer reviewe

Impact of COVID‐19 outbreak in reperfusion therapies of acute ischemic stroke in North‐West Spain

Since the first reported case in early December 2019, severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection, known as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19), has spread all over the world (1‐3). As of June 4th, more than 6 million cases and 350,000 deaths have been reported worldwide (4). Treating these patients and containing the outbreak has become the main priority in any center, arising the risk of possible collateral damage on patients with other acute diseases due to the collapse of the pre‐ and intra‐hospital emergency care systems.Peer reviewe