The weekend effect in aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage: a single centre experience and review

Clinical outcomes for patients admitted to hospital during weekend hours have been reported to be poorer than for those admitted during the week. Aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (aSAH) is a devastating form of haemorrhagic stroke, with a mortality rate greater than 30%. A number of studies have reported higher mortality for patients with aSAH who are admitted during weekend hours. This study evaluates the effect of weekend admission on patients in our unit with aSAH in terms of time to treatment, treatment type, rebleeding rates, functional outcome, and mortality. We analysed a retrospective database of all patients admitted to our tertiary referral centre with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage between February 2016 and February 2020. Chi-square tests and t-tests were used to compare weekday and weekend demographic and clinical variables. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to assess for any association between admission during weekend hours and increased neurological morbidity (assessed via Glasgow Outcome Scale at 3 months) and mortality. Of the 571 patients included in this study, 191 were admitted during on-call weekend hours. There were no significant differences found in time to treatment, type of treatment, rebleeding rates, neurological morbidity, or mortality rates between patients admitted during the week and those admitted during weekend hours. Weekend admission was not associated with worsened functional outcome or increased mortality in this cohort. These results suggest that provision of 7-day cover by vascular neurosurgeons and interventional neuroradiologists in high-volume centres could mitigate the weekend effect sometimes reported in the aSAH cohort.