Pablo M Lavados | PubMed Health

PubMed2005

[Stroke units in Chile].

Stroke is a major public health problem in Chile, with an incidence similar to that of many industrialized nations, it accounts for 10% of all deaths and ranks 5th in number of healthy years of life lost to a disease. Organized inpatient care for stroke patients has been shown in systematic reviews of randomized clinical trials to be effective in preventing death, disability and institutional care, without increasing length of stay compared to usual care. Organized stroke unit care is provided by multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a dedicated ward (stroke ward) of which there are various possible models; acute stroke units which accept patients acutely but discharge early (usually within 7 days). This could include an "intensive" model of care with continuous monitoring and high nurse staffing levels; comprehensive (i.e. combined acute and rehabilitation) stroke units which accept patients acutely but also provide rehabilitation for at least several weeks if necessary. The way in which stroke units affect outcome is through reduction of complications of immobility and probably non specific neuroprotection. Stroke units should deliver high quality evidence based interventions to all eligible patients and should maintain high standards of care through staff training, guidelines and protocols, audit and quality assurance. Given that stroke is one of the fifty six health priorities in the health reform, inpatient stroke care should be delivered through stroke units organized in hospitals throughout Chile.

Chile↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Incidence, 30-day case-fatality rate, and prognosis of stroke in Iquique, Chile: a 2-year community-based prospective study (PISCIS project).

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of stroke in Latin-American populations and variation of subtypes between communities are unclear. Our aim was to ascertain prospectively the incidence of first-ever stroke in the predominantly Hispanic-Mestizo population of Iquique, a city in the northern desert region of Chile. METHODS: We prospectively identified all possible cases of stroke and transient ischaemic attacks between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2002, from several overlapping sources. Patients were rapidly assessed by two field neurologists. Standard definitions for incident cases, stroke, transient ischaemic attack, pathological type, and infarction subtype were used. All cases identified were adjudicated by at least two stroke neurologists and followed up at 6 months. Incidence rates of first-ever strokes were calculated from the population of Iquique (214 526) according to the national census of 2002. FINDINGS: Of 380 cases of stroke identified, 292 were incident. CT scans were done in 267 (91%) patients and the mean time to scan was 2.2 days. The hospital admission rate was 71% (207/292). The overall age-adjusted incidence rate of first-ever stroke was 140.1 per 100,000 (95% CI 124.0-156.2). The incidence rates per 100,000 according to pathological type were: infarcts 87.3, intracerebral haemorrhage 27.6, and subarachnoid haemorrhage 6.2. The 30 day and 6-month case-fatality rates were 23.3% and 33.0%, respectively. INTERPRETATION: Our results show incidence rates of stroke similar to those reported in other community studies. Although the proportion of intracerebral haemorrhages was higher than reported in previous studies, the overall incidence was not, which could indicate a slightly lower incidence of ischaemic strokes in this population than in other countries. The prognosis was similar to that found in other population-based studies.

Adult↗