Department of Emergency Medical Service, College of Health and Nursing, Kongju National University, Gongju, Korea.
Department of Emergency Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.
J Korean Med Sci. 2022 Feb 14;37(6):e47. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e47.
When a sudden outbreak of an infectious disease occurs, emergency medical services (EMS) response could be negatively affected. The poor prognosis of acute stroke may be largely attributed to delays in treatment. This study aimed to identify the impact of the sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on EMS response for patients with acute stroke.
This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in 25 safety centers in Seoul, Korea. We enrolled patients with acute stroke who were transferred to the emergency department by EMS. The study period was from February-April 2020 and the same period in 2019. Patients were divided into two groups, pre-COVID-19 period and early-COVID-19 period, and previously collected patient data were analyzed. We performed comparative analyses of EMS response and clinical outcomes between the groups.
Of 465 patients, 231 (49.7%) had an acute stroke during the study period. There was no significant difference between clinical characteristics of patients with acute stroke before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. EMS response times increased significantly during the early COVID-19 outbreak. The intensive care unit admission rate and mortality rate increased during the early COVID-19 outbreak.
In the initial phase after the sudden COVID-19 outbreak, EMS response times for acute stroke were delayed and the clinical outcomes of patients with acute stroke deteriorated.
当传染病突然爆发时，紧急医疗服务（EMS）的响应可能会受到负面影响。急性中风的预后较差可能在很大程度上归因于治疗的延迟。本研究旨在确定 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）突然爆发对急性中风患者 EMS 响应的影响。
本研究为在韩国首尔的 25 个安全中心进行的比较性横断面研究。我们招募了由 EMS 转至急诊室的急性中风患者。研究期间为 2020 年 2 月至 4 月和 2019 年同期。将患者分为 COVID-19 前和 COVID-19 早期两个时期，并对之前收集的患者数据进行分析。我们对两组的 EMS 响应和临床结局进行了比较分析。
在 465 名患者中，有 231 名（49.7%）在研究期间患有急性中风。COVID-19 爆发前后急性中风患者的临床特征无显著差异。在 COVID-19 早期爆发期间，EMS 响应时间显著增加。重症监护病房入院率和死亡率在 COVID-19 早期爆发期间增加。
在 COVID-19 突然爆发的初始阶段，急性中风的 EMS 响应时间延迟，急性中风患者的临床结局恶化。
