Letter to the editor: Analysis of stroke patient migration for mechanical thrombectomy and changes in neurointerventional center size in Germany

• Verfasst von: Weber, Ralph [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Bartig, Dirk [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Krogias, Christos [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Richter, Daniel [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Hacke, Werner [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Eyding, Jens [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: Letter to the editor: Analysis of stroke patient migration for mechanical thrombectomy and changes in neurointerventional center size in Germany
• Verf.angabe: Ralph Weber, Dirk Bartig, Christos Krogias, Daniel Richter, Werner Hacke and Jens Eyding
• E-Jahr: 2021
• Jahr: 07 June 2021
• Umfang: 4 S.
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 09.06.2021
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Neurological research and practice
• Ort Quelle: [London] : BioMed Central, 2019
• Jahr Quelle: 2021
• Band/Heft Quelle: 3(2021), 1, Artikel-ID 32, Seite 1-4
• ISSN Quelle: 2524-3489
• DOI: doi:10.1186/s42466-021-00131-2
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• Sach-SW: Health care structure
• Sach-SW: Neurointerventional center size
• Sach-SW: Patient migration
• Sach-SW: Stroke
• Sach-SW: Thrombectomy
• K10plus-PPN: 1760129437

Abstract

AIM AND METHODS: To analyse nationwide changes in neurointerventional center size of all German hospitals performing mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in stroke patients from 2016 to 2019. Furthermore, we assessed cross-district patient migration for MT for the first time using hospitals' structured quality reports and German Diagnosis-Related Groups data in 2019. FINDINGS: Number of hospitals performing more than 100 MT procedures/year doubled in Germany from 2016 (n = 36) to 2019 (n = 71), and these neurointerventional centers performed 71% of all MT procedures in 2019. The overall increase in MT procedures was largely driven by these high-volume neurointerventional centers with ability to perform MT 24/7 (121% increase as compared with 8% increase in hospitals performing less than 100 MT procedures/year). The highest cross-district patient mobility/transfer of stroke patients for MT was observed in districts adjacent to these high-volume neurointerventional centers with existing neurovascular networks. CONCLUSION: The substantial increase in MT procedures observed in Germany between 2016 and 2019 was almost exclusively delivered by high-volume stroke centers performing more than 100 MT procedures per year in established neurovascular networks. As there is still a reasonable number of districts with low MT rates, further structural improvement including implementation of new or expansion of existing neurovascular networks and regional tailored MT triage concepts is needed.