‘Busiest ever’ year for thrombectomy services – 2023 annual report

Last year was the “busiest ever” for endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) in Ireland, with 566 patients treated, according to the National Thrombectomy Service Annual Report 2023. This represented a 17 per cent increase from 2022.

However, the report stated that “significant” investment is required if EVT is to become available to all potentially eligible patients.

Writing in the report, the Director of the National Thrombectomy Service Dr Matthew Crockett outlined that EVT “greatly” benefits patients and leads to “considerable medium- and long-term savings” for the health service.

In 2023, some 692 patients were transferred for emergency thrombectomy (486 to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and 206 to Cork University Hospital (CUH)). Some 566 of these patients underwent thrombectomy (409 in Beaumont and 157 in CUH). 

Given there were 5,540 ischemic stroke discharges from primary stroke centres, the national thrombectomy rate was 10.2 per cent. This was almost a 1 per cent increase on 2022 and “the first time that we have broken the 10 per cent barrier”, according to Dr Crockett.

Dr Crockett described the data as “encouraging”, but noted there was “plenty of work to do”.

“Door to needle time was up by six minutes across Ireland and the thrombolysis rate was down by 4 per cent for the hospitals from the Beaumont catchment, both disappointing statistics,” he outlined.

“It is also estimated that between 15-20 per cent of strokes are potentially eligible for EVT and therefore, with an EVT rate at just over 10 per cent, we may only be halfway to the finish line.”

Increasing the EVT rate to 15-20 per cent would be “challenging” and would likely require “significant investment and reconfiguration” of referral pathways.