Background: The guidelines of the German Society for Neurology regarding the diagnostics and treatment of acute ischemic stroke contain the general recommendation of treatment on a stroke unit (SU) and the use of recanalizing treatment (intravenous thrombolysis, IVT; mechanical thrombectomy, MT) in appropriate patients. The nationwide availability of all three components represents a large organizational and healthcare political challenge.
Objective: Updated nationwide analysis of treatment rates in Germany based on a regionalized evaluation.
Methods: Based on the patient's place of residence, nationwide data of all hospitalized patients were evaluated using the German diagnosis-related groups (DRG) statistics from 2018 and compared with previous years. The rates for SU treatment, IVT and MT in the 412 German regional districts were analyzed. The 412 regions were grouped according to the degree of urbanization.
Results: Nationwide, a total of 224,647 patient cases with a main diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke were treated in 1382 hospitals in Germany in 2018. Overall, relatively high treatment rates were determined (SU = 73.3%; IVT = 16.4%; MT = 6.5%). Only 10.2% of treatments in the SU were performed on a SU located at a hospital with no neurology department. The regionalized analysis showed large treatment ranges for all three therapeutic components, with significantly lower treatment rates in regions with a lower degree of urbanization (SU, IVT, MT rates: urban = 75.4%, 17.4%, 7.5% and rural = 67.1%; 15.4%, 5.3%, respectively).
Conclusion: Hospitalized healthcare in Germany shows high treatment rates for both SU admission and acute recanalization treatment in patients with acute ischemic stroke; however, there is further optimization potential in rural regions.
Keywords: Bridging therapy; Stroke unit; Thrombectomy; Thrombolysis; Urbanization.