MENA-SINO Consensus Statement on Implementing Care Pathways for Acute Neurovascular Emergencies During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

In the unprecedented current era of the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges have arisen in the management and interventional care of patients with acute stroke and large vessel occlusion, aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, and ruptured vascular malformations. There are several challenges facing endovascular therapy for stroke, including shortages of medical staff who may be deployed for COVID-19 coverage or who may have contracted the infection and are thus quarantined, patients avoiding early medical care, a lack of personal protective equipment, delays in door-to-puncture time, anesthesia challenges, and a lack of high-intensity intensive care unit and stroke ward beds. As a leading regional neurovascular organization, the Middle East North Africa Stroke and Interventional Neurotherapies Organization (MENA-SINO) has established a task force composed of medical staff and physicians from different disciplines to establish guiding recommendations for the implementation of acute care pathways for various neurovascular emergencies during the current COVID-19 pandemic. This consensus recommendation was achieved through a series of meetings to finalize the recommendation.

Keywords: COVID; MENA; acute ischemic stroke; endovascular therapy; recommendation; subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Figure 1

Triage algorithm for EVT patients.