Background and purpose: The time of hospital arrival may have an effect on prognosis of various vascular diseases. We examined whether off-hour admission would affect the 3-month functional outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to tertiary hospitals.
Methods: We analyzed the 'off-hour effect' in consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke using multi-center prospective stroke registry. Work-hour admission was defined as when the patient arrived at the emergency department between 8 AM and 6 PM from Monday to Friday and between 8 AM and 1 PM on Saturday. Off-hour admission was defined as the rest of the work-hours and statutory holidays. Multivariable logistic regression was used to analyze the association between off-hour admission and 3-month unfavorable functional outcome defined as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 3-6. Multivariable model included age, sex, risk factors, prehospital delay time, intravenous thrombolysis, stroke subtypes and severity as covariates.
Results: A total of 7075 patients with acute ischemic stroke were included in this analysis: mean age, 67.5 (±13.0) years; male, 58.6%. In multivariable analysis, off-hour admission was not associated with unfavorable functional outcome (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.72-1.09) and mortality (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.77-1.54) at 3 months. Moreover, off-hour admission did not affect a statistically significant shift of 3-month mRS distributions (OR, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.78-1.05).
Conclusions: 'Off-hour' admission is not associated with an unfavorable 3-month functional outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to tertiary hospitals in Korea. This finding indicates that the off-hour effects could be overcome with well-organized stroke management strategies.