ArticleJournal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases : the official journal of National Stroke Association2020
Code Stroke Patient Referral by Emergency Medical Services During the Public COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown.
Article in Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases : the official journal of National Stroke Association, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in Stroke Hospital Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Stroke · 2021Pooled it
- A nationwide analysis of emergency medical services' responses during six waves of COVID-19.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Emergency medical services utilization in acute stroke in Qatar - an observational cohort study.International journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prehospital emergency medical service: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Article
- Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Prehospital Management of Patients with Suspected Acute Stroke: A Retrospective Cohort Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Ischemic Stroke Patients in a Comprehensive Hospital.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2022Article
- Comparing Emergency Medical Services Processing Times for Stroke Patients Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic; A Cross-sectional Study.Archives of academic emergency medicine · 2022Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on Emergency Medical Services for Patients with Acute Stroke Presentation in Busan, South Korea.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Trends in interventional stroke device utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic.Clinical neurology and neurosurgery · 2021Observational
- The Impact of COVID-19 on a Large, Canadian Community Emergency Department.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2021Observational
- Consequences of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on emergency and stroke care in a German tertiary stroke center.Neurological research and practice · 2021Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with neurological disorders: an urgent need to enhance the health care system's preparedness.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused public lockdowns around the world. We analyzed if the public lockdown altered the referral pattern of Code Stroke patients by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to our Comprehensive Stroke Center.
methodsRetrospective single-center study at a Bavarian Comprehensive Stroke Center. Patients who were directly referred to our stroke unit by EMS between the 1
resultsIn total 241 patients were referred to our center during the study period, i.e. 171 before and 70 during the lockdown. The absolute daily number of Code Stroke referrals and the portion of patients with stroke mimics remained stable. The portion of female stroke patients decreased (55% to 33%; p = 0.03), and stroke severity as measured by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (median 3 (IQR 0-7) versus 6 (IQR 1-15.5) points; p = 0.04) increased during the lockdown. There was no difference of daily numbers of patients receiving thrombolysis and thrombectomy.
conclusionsReferral of Code Stroke patients by EMS could be maintained sufficiently despite the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. However, patients' health care utilization of the EMS may have changed within the public lockdown. EMS remains a useful tool for Code Stroke patient referral during lockdowns, but public education about stroke is required prior to further lockdowns.
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