Where have our patients gone? The impact of COVID-19 on stroke imaging and intervention at an Australian stroke center.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Australia has fortunately had a low prevalence coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and our healthcare system has not been overwhelmed. We aimed to determine whether, despite this, a decline in acute stroke presentations, imaging and intervention occurred during the pandemic at a busy stroke centre.

Methods

The number of 'code stroke' activations, multimodal CTs and endovascular clot retrievals (ECRs) performed during the pandemic period (3/1/2020-5/10/2020) at a large comprehensive stroke centre was compared against the pre-pandemic period (3/1/2019-1/31/2019) using Z-statistics. Year-on-year comparison of the number of patients with large vessel occlusions (LVOs) and ECRs performed per month was also made.

Results

The number of 'code stroke' activations

SUBMITTER: Amukotuwa SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7460943 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature