Temporal Trends in Stroke Hospitalizations, Treatment Modalities, and Mortality

Stroke remains a leading cause of morbidity and is the second leading cause of death globally1 despite advances in treatment and prevention over the past decade. In this issue of Neurology®, Kelly et al.2 use administrative data on acute stroke hospitalizations among adults aged 18 years or older in Germany between 2014 and 2019 to describe updated trends in stroke admissions, treatment modalities, and mortality nationally. Using population-level data from the Federal Statistics Office in Germany, study authors calculated frequencies of hospitalizations for acute stroke over a 6-year period. Study authors then evaluated demographic and clinical characteristics of stroke cases and evaluated trends in the utilization of interventions such as carotid stenting, systemic thrombolysis, and thrombectomy. They also calculated proportions of stroke cases in which in-hospital death occurred, followed by logistic regression models to investigate predictors of in-hospital mortality.