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

Neurological Research and Practice

Ralph Weber¹  Daniel Richter²  Jens Eyding³  Christos Krogias⁴  Dirk Bartig⁵  Werner Hacke⁶ 

[1] Department of Neurology, Alfried Krupp Krankenhaus Essen, Alfried-Krupp-Str. 21, 45131, Essen, Germany;Medical Faculty, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany;Northwest-German Stroke Circle e.V, Bochum, Germany;Department of Neurology, University Hospital St. Josef-Hospital Bochum, Bochum, Germany;Medical Faculty, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany;Northwest-German Stroke Circle e.V, Bochum, Germany;Department of Neurology, Gemeinschaftskrankenhaus Herdecke, Herdecke, Germany;Medical Faculty, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany;Northwest-German Stroke Circle e.V, Bochum, Germany;Department of Neurology, University Hospital St. Josef-Hospital Bochum, Bochum, Germany;Northwest-German Stroke Circle e.V, Bochum, Germany;drg market, Osnabrück, Germany;University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany;

关键词: Stroke;    Thrombectomy;    Health care structure;    Patient migration;    Neurointerventional center size;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s42466-021-00131-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Aim and methodsTo 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.FindingsNumber 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.ConclusionThe 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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY