How COVID-19 Changed Stroke Care in a Major Hospital

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, a top-tier stroke center noticed some big changes in how they treated patients. They looked back at people who had a stroke from September 2020 to May 2021, both with and without COVID-19. They found that there were fewer cases of a common type of stroke called acute ischemic stroke (AIS). But there were more cases of large vessel occlusions (LVOs), which are serious blockages in the brain's blood vessels. More people with COVID-19 needed a special treatment called mechanical thrombectomy (MT) to unblock these vessels.People with COVID-19 had more severe strokes and didn't do as well in the long run. They were in the hospital longer and had a higher chance of dying. The risk of a specific complication called symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) was the same for everyone, so the special treatments were still safe. For people with another type of stroke called intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), having COVID-19 also made things worse. They had more severe strokes and a higher chance of dying. So, the pandemic changed the game for stroke care. It's important to understand these changes to keep improving how we treat strokes.