LA Times
You might think that the weekend is a particularly bad time to suffer a stroke. Hospitals have smaller staffs, and academic medical centers are more likely to rely on interns, residents and fellows.
A Canadian study from a few years back found that stroke patients who were admitted to the hospital on weekends were 14% more likely to die than patients who were admitted on weekdays, after adjusting for age, sex, complications and other factors.
American researchers have also found that patients who suffered heart attacks on the weekend were less likely to get aggressive cardiac treatment; as a result, mortality is higher on the weekends than on weekdays.
But it turns out that stroke treatment in the U.S. is actually more aggressive on the weekends, according to a new study in the January issue of Archives of Neurology.
Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston analyzed the records of nearly 80,000 patients who were treated for acute ischemic stroke – which occurs when a blood clot or other obstruction cuts off blood supply to the brain – in Virginia between 1998 and 2006. Patients who were admitted on the weekend were 20% more likely to receive the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, also known as tPA, than were patients who suffered strokes on weekdays.
The researchers aren’t exactly sure why treatment would be more aggressive on Saturdays and Sundays, but they speculate that the slower pace of the weekend actually benefits stroke patients. There’s less traffic to contend with on the way to the hospital. Diagnostic equipment isn’t tied up by people having elective surgical procedures. And doctors who are staffing weekend shifts may be less busy. Perhaps all of that adds up to a situation in which stroke patients get to doctors within the 3-hour window required for administration of tPA, they wrote.
But it didn’t seem to result in a lower mortality rate on weekends. In fact, the study found that the death rate was about 7% throughout the week.
American researchers have also found that patients who suffered heart attacks on the weekend were less likely to get aggressive cardiac treatment; as a result, mortality is higher on the weekends than on weekdays.
But it turns out that stroke treatment in the U.S. is actually more aggressive on the weekends, according to a new study in the January issue of Archives of Neurology.
Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston analyzed the records of nearly 80,000 patients who were treated for acute ischemic stroke – which occurs when a blood clot or other obstruction cuts off blood supply to the brain – in Virginia between 1998 and 2006. Patients who were admitted on the weekend were 20% more likely to receive the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator, also known as tPA, than were patients who suffered strokes on weekdays.
The researchers aren’t exactly sure why treatment would be more aggressive on Saturdays and Sundays, but they speculate that the slower pace of the weekend actually benefits stroke patients. There’s less traffic to contend with on the way to the hospital. Diagnostic equipment isn’t tied up by people having elective surgical procedures. And doctors who are staffing weekend shifts may be less busy. Perhaps all of that adds up to a situation in which stroke patients get to doctors within the 3-hour window required for administration of tPA, they wrote.
But it didn’t seem to result in a lower mortality rate on weekends. In fact, the study found that the death rate was about 7% throughout the week.
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