TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kashefiolasl, Sepide
A1  - Qasem, Lina-Elisabeth
A1  - Brawanski, Nina
A1  - Funke, Moritz
A1  - Keil, Fee
A1  - Hattingen, Elke
A1  - Förch, Christian
A1  - Seifert, Volker
A1  - Prinz, Vincent Matthias
A1  - Czabanka, Marcus Alexander
A1  - Konczalla, Jürgen
T1  - Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on treatment management and clinical outcome of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage – a single-center experience
T2  - Frontiers in neurology
N2  - Background: Previous studies reported decreased volumes of acute stroke admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to examine whether aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) volumes demonstrated similar declines in our department. Furthermore, the impact of the pandemic on disease progression should be analyzed.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective study in the neurosurgical department of the university hospital Frankfurt including patients with the diagnosis of aSAH during the first year of the COVID pandemic. One year cumulative volume for aSAH hospitalization procedures was compared to the year before (03/2020 – 02/2021 vs. 03/2019 – 02/2020) and the last 5 pre-COVID-pandemic years (2015-2020). All relevant patient characteristics concerning family history, disease history, clinical condition at admission, active/past COVID-infection, treatment management, complications, and outcome were analyzed.
Results: Compared to the 84 hospital admissions during the pre-pandemic years, the number of aSAH hospitalizations (n = 56) declined during the pandemic without reaching significance. No significant difference in the analyzed patient characteristics including clinical condition at onset, treatment, complications, and outcome, between 56 patients with aSAH admitted during the COVID pandemic and the treated patients in the last 5 years in the pre-COVID period were found. In our multivariable analysis, we detected young age (p < 0.05; OR 4.2) and no existence of early hydrocephalus (p < 0.05; OR 0.13) as important factors for a favorable outcome (mRS ≤ 0–2) after aSAH during the COVID pandemic. A past COVID-infection was detected in young patients suffering from aSAH (Age < 50years, p < 0.05; OR 10.5) with an increased rate of cerebral vasospasm after aSAH onset (p < 0.05; OR 26). Nevertheless, past COVID-infection did not reach significance as a high-risk factor for unfavorable outcomes.
Conclusion: There was a relative decrease in the number of patients with aSAH during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the extremely different conditions of hospitalization, there was no impairing significant effect on the treatment and outcome of admitted patients with aSAH. A past COVID infection seemed to be an irrelevant limiting factor concerning favorable outcomes.
KW  - neurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH)
KW  - cerebral vasospasm (CVS)
KW  - delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI)
KW  - clinical outcome
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - pandemic
KW  - healthcare system
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/74223
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-742232
SN  - 1664-2295
VL  - 13
IS  - art. 836422
SP  - 1
EP  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -