Background and purposeStroke assistance is facing changes and new challenges since COVID‐19 became pandemic. A variation on the patient influx might be one of the greater concerns, due to fewer people coming to emergency departments or coming too late. However, no data quantifying this have been published until now. The aim was to analyse the impact of the COVID‐19 epidemic outbreak on hospital stroke admissions and their characteristics in our region.MethodsThe data of every patient admitted to any hospital of our healthcare system with a diagnosis of ischaemic stroke between 30 December 2019 and 19 April 2020 were reviewed. Demographic and clinical data were recorded and compared between periods before and after the setting of the state of emergency secondary to the COVID‐19 outbreak.ResultsIn total, 354 patients with ischaemic stroke were admitted in our study period. There was a weekly average of 27.5 cases before the setting of the state of emergency against 12 afterwards (P < 0.001). This drop in stroke cases occurred progressively from week 11, persisting in time despite the decrease in confirmed cases of COVID‐19. No differences in the proportion of intravenous thrombolysis (21.1% vs. 21.5%, P = 0.935) or endovascular therapy (12.4% vs. 15.2%, P = 0.510) were found, nor in other demographic or clinical characteristics except for median onset‐to‐door time (102 vs. 183 min, P = 0.015).ConclusionsThis observational study offers the perspective of a whole region in one of the countries more heavily stricken by the SARS‐CoV‐2 epidemic and shows that the decrease of stroke events, since the beginning of the COVID‐19 outbreak, happened globally and without any specific patient distribution.

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Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on ischaemic stroke management, with a reported decrease in hospital admissions, and even disruptions in healthcare and increased in-hospital mortality. However, there is a lack of evidence on the impact of the pandemic on functional prognosis. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 3-month functional outcomes of patients hospitalised due to acute ischaemic stroke in Aragon (Spain). Methods We reviewed the data of all patients admitted due to ischaemic stroke to any hospital in our regional healthcare system between 30 December 2019 and 3 May 2020. We compared modified Rankin Scale scores and mortality at 3 months in patients hospitalised before and after the declaration of a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results In total, 318 patients with acute ischaemic stroke met our inclusion criteria. No differences were observed between periods in global or specific characteristics, with the exception of a higher proportion of patients older than 80 years during the first period (42.2% vs 29.0%, P = .028). In the comparative analysis, we found no significant differences in mortality (12.3 vs 7.9, P = .465) or in the proportion of patients with modified Rankin Scale scores ≤ 2 (57.7% vs 57.1%, P = .425) at 3 months. Conclusion To our knowledge, this is the first study to analyse the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the 3-month functional outcomes of patients with ischaemic stroke. In our region, there has been no increase in rates of mortality or disability at 3 months in patients admitted due to ischaemic stroke during the pandemic.

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