Stability of the stroke code during the COVID-19 pandemic in the region of Madrid: a retrospective study

Riera-Lopez, Nicolas; Fuentes-Gimeno, Blanca; Rodriguez-Pardo, Jorge

Acute Stroke (AS) is the most common time-dependent disease attended in the Emergency Medicine Service (EMS) of Madrid (SUMMA 112). Community of Madrid has been one of the most affected regions in Spain by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic. A significant reduction in AS hospital admissions has been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the same period one year before. We aimed to examine the impact of the COVID-19 in stroke codes (SC) in our EMS among three periods of time: the COVID-19 period, the same period the year before, and the 2019-2020 seasonal influenza period. Results: We found no significant reduction in SC during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reduction of hospital admissions might be attributable to patients attending to the hospital by their own means. The maximum SC workload seen during the seasonal influenza has not been reached during the pandemic. We detected a non-significant deviation from the SC protocol, with a slight increase in hospitals transfers to non-stroke ready hospitals.