Tag: Weekend effect

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Association between weekend admissions and mortality after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: the “weekend effect” revisited

J Neurosurg 132:1167–1173, 2020

Higher mortality has been reported with weekend or after-hours patient admission across a wide range of surgical and medical specialties, a phenomenon termed the “weekend effect.” The authors evaluated whether weekend admission contributed to death and long-term neurological outcome in patients following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

METHODS A post hoc analysis of the Clazosentan to Overcome Neurological Ischemia and Infarction Occurring After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (CONSCIOUS-1) study was conducted. Univariable and stepwise multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations between weekend admission and mortality and long-term neurological outcome.

RESULTS Of 413 subjects included in the CONSCIOUS-1 study, 140 patients had been admitted during the weekend. A significant interaction was identified between weekend admission and neurological grade on presentation, suggesting that the outcomes of patients who had initially presented with a poor grade were disproportionately influenced by the weekend admission. On stepwise multivariable logistic regression in the subgroup of patients who had presented with a poor neurological grade (29 of 100 patients), admission on the weekend was found to be independently associated with death (OR 6.59, 95% CI 1.62–26.88, p = 0.009). Weekend admission was not associated with long-term neurological outcome.

CONCLUSIONS Weekend admission was an independent risk factor for death within 12 weeks following aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage in patients presenting with a poor neurological grade. Further work is required to identify and mitigate any mediating factors.

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Effect of weekend admission on in-hospital mortality and functional outcomes for patients with acute subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH)

A Simple and Quantitative Method to Predict Symptomatic Vasospasm After Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Based on Computed Tomography- Beyond the Fisher Scale

Acta Neurochir (2016) 158:829–835

Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) is an acute cerebrovascular event with high socioeconomic impact as it tends to affect younger patients. The recent NCEPOD study looking into management of aSAH has recommended that neurovascular units in the United Kingdom should aim to secure cerebral aneurysms within 48 h and that delays because of weekend admissions can increase the mortality and morbidity attributed to aSAH.

Method We used data from a prospective audit of aSAH patients admitted between January 2009 and December 2011. The baseline demographic and clinical features of the weekend and weekday groups were compared using the chisquared test and T-test. Cox proportional hazards models (Proc Phreg in SAS) were used to calculate the adjusted overall hazard of in-hospital death associated with admission on weekend, adjusting for age, sex, baseline WFNS grade, type of treatment received and time from scan to treatment. Sliding dichotomy analysis was used to estimate the difference in outcomes after SAH at 3 months in weekend and weekday admissions.

Results Those admitted on weekends had a significantly higher scan to treatment time (83.05 ± 83.4 h vs 40.4 ± 53.4 h, P < 0.0001) and admission to treatment (71.59 ± 79.8 h vs 27.5 ± 44.3 h, P<0.0001) time. After adjustments for adjusted for relevant covariates weekend admission was statistically significantly associated with excess in-hospital mortality (HR= 2.1, CL [1.13–4.0], P=0.01). After adjustments for all the baseline covariates, the sliding dichotomy analysis did not show effects of weekend admission on long-term outcomes on the good, intermediate and worst prognostic bands.

Conclusions: This study provides important data showing excess in-hospital mortality of patients with SAH on weekend admissions served by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. However, there were no effects of weekend admission on long-term outcomes.

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