Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted the national healthcare system in Poland, resulting in the implementation of new protocols allowing only patients with severe diagnoses to receive immediate treatment. Given that an intracranial aneurysm (IA) is regarded as one of the most severe diagnoses, we planned to assess whether the current protocol has successfully provided the standard treatment for IAs.
Material and methods: Data on all IA cases treated from 2015 to 2020 was extracted from the JGP (a homogeneous group of patients) catalogue provided by the National Health Index of Poland (NFZ, Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia). Poisson regression was used to determine the significance of the change in hospital admissions, and differences between proportions were analysed using the "N-1" Chi-squared test.
Results: A total of 21,801 IA patients treated during 2015-2020 were included in this study. The overall number of hospitalisations due to IAs fell in the open surgery group, but not in the endovascular cohort. Mortality rates following IA treatment increased significantly by 21% in 2020 compared to preceding years. The demographics changed as well; the patients were significantly younger during the pandemic.
Conclusions: Our findings show that the current strategy for optimal care for patients diagnosed with IAs in Poland during the pandemic is failing to maintain high quality treatment. New methods to improve the current plan should be implemented to address future crises.
Keywords: COVID-19; incidence; intracranial aneurysm; mortality.