Does Organized Care Benefit All Stroke Patients?

In regards to new research that shows stroke patients benefit from organized care no matter the stroke etiology, lead author Eric Smith, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, said “Here, we show in a real-world setting that increasing level of organized stroke care is strongly associated with decreased mortality in each of the main ischemic stroke subtypes.” For the study, organized care consisted of occupational therapy or physiotherapy, stroke team assessment, and treatment on a stroke unit.

In patients with lacunar stroke, mortality risk was reduced by 84%, in cardioembolic stroke by 63%, in large-artery atherosclerotic stroke by 57%, and in other/undetermined stroke by 80% if participants had an organized care index grade of 2-3 as opposed to 0-1.

"Our data suggest that all ischemic stroke subtypes benefit from organized care, including mild lacunar strokes and severe cardioembolic strokes," concluded the researchers.

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