Analysis of weekend effect on 30-day mortality among patients with acute myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVES Several publications have demonstrated increased 30-day mortality in patients admitted on Saturdays or Sundays compared with weekdays. We sought to determine whether this was true for two different cohorts of patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction (MI). METHODS AND RESULTS Thirty-day mortality data were obtained for 3757 patients who had been admitted to the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust with acute MI between 2009 and 2015. They were subdivided into those presenting with ST elevation MI (n=2240) and non-ST elevation MI (n= 1517). We observed no excess 30-day mortality in those admitted over weekends. CONCLUSION Excess mortality in patients admitted at weekends is not a universal finding. This may mean that that there are patient subgroups with proportionately greater weekend hazard and points to the need for more detailed understanding of the weekend effect.