The Impact of the COVID‐19 outbreak on acute stroke care in Slovakia (data from across the country)

• Published in: European Journal of Neurology 2020
• Main Authors: Gdovinová, Zuzana, Vitková, Marianna, Baráková, Anna, Cvopová, Alena
• Format: Web Resource
• Language: English
• DOI: 10.1111/ene.14640

Background A few studies using data from regional databases have recently pointed to a decreased number of patients with stroke. The aim of our work was to describe country‐level data (the number of patients with stroke, proportion of patients with acute stroke, TIAs, patients treated with IVT or MT, DNT and ONT) during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Slovakia. Methods The study examined data from the stroke register at the National Health Information Centre. Data from three time periods (1: March‐April 2020; 2: March‐April 2019 and 3: January‐February 2020) were compared using an independent sample t‐test and the Wilcoxon‐Mann‐Whitney two sample rank‐sum test. Results The number of stroke patients admitted to hospitals in Slovakia during the COVID‐19 period showed a decrease (1673 versus 2328 in period 2 and 2155 in period 3). The proportions of patients with TIA remained the same in periods 1 and 2 (9.7 vs 11.7%) and in periods 1 and 3 (9.7 vs 11.8%). The percentage of patients treated with IVT during the pandemic (22.4%) did not differ from period 2 (20.0%) or period 3 (21.4%). No difference was found in the rate of MT between the COVID‐19 period (10.2%) and the same period in 2019 (10.7%) and January‐February 2020 (13.1%). Median DNT remained unchanged in periods 1 (30 min), 2 (35 min) and 3 (30 min) no differences were found in median ONT in periods 1 (130 min), 2 (130 min) and 3 (140 min). Conclusion We found a decreased number of stroke patients during the COVID‐19 outbreak in Slovakia, but no evidence for a change in the quality of acute stroke care.