Impact of COVID-19 on incidence and treatment of intracranial aneurysms in Poland: a national study

Abstract

Introduction.The COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted the national healthcare system in Poland, resulting in the implementation of new protocols allowing only patients with severe diagnoses to receive immediate treatment. Given that an intracranial aneurysm (IA) is regarded as one of the most severe diagnoses, we planned to assess whether the current protocol has successfully provided the standard treatment for IAs. Material and methods.Data on all IA cases treated from 2015 to 2020 was extracted from the JGP (a homogeneous group of patients) catalogue provided by the National Health Index of Poland (NFZ, Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia). Poisson regression was used to determine the significance of the change in hospital admissions, and differences between proportions were analysed using the "N-1" Chi-squared test.Results. A total of 21,801 IA patients treated during 2015-2020 were included in this study. The overall number of hospitalisations due to IAs fell in the open surgery group, but not in the endovascular cohort. Mortality rates following IA treatment increased significantly by 21% in 2020 compared to preceding years. The demographics changed as well; the patients were significantly younger during the pandemic. Conclusions.Our findings show that the current strategy for optimal care for patients diagnosed with IAs in Poland during the pandemic is failing to maintain high quality treatment. New methods to improve the current plan should be implemented to address future crises.

Relevance of Routine Postoperative CT Scans Following Aneurysm Clipping—A Retrospective Multicenter Analysis of 423 Cases

“…In Poland, in 2020 alone, 1057 unruptured aneurysms were treated. The clipping rate was 22.65% [ 29 ]. The price of one POCT in the University Clinical Centre in Gdansk scan is PLN 220 or USD 46.51 (using the exchange rate from 31 October 2022) [ 30 ].…”

International study: Global impact of COVID-19 on stroke care — the Polish contribution

“…Although respiratory infection is the main clinical feature of COVID-19, the consequences of a SARS-Cov2 infection can also include coagulation disorders, cardiomyopathy and endotheliopathy, which are associated with stroke in up to 1.5% of patients. The sudden outbreak of the pandemic immediately favoured collaboration between Polish clinicians who have published several articles in this matter [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. The transfer of knowledge between medical centres across the world was also important.…”

Subarachnoid hemorrhages and aneurysms during the SARS-CoV2-pandemia at a tertiary medical center – Analysis of incidence and outcome

“…While the pandemic and the lockdown affected the clinical practice in neurovascular centers in Germany as well as worldwide, a specific impact was sparsely reported on the decline of the incidence of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhages treated ( SVIN COVID-19 Global SAH Registry, 2022 ), ( Anna et al, 2020 ). ( Luostarinen et al, 2020 ), ( Miękisiak et al, 2022 ). Non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage accompanying a COVID19-infection is described only occasionally ( Ersegun Batcik et al, 2021 ).…”