ABSTRACT
Lately, much progress was present in stroke prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Mechanism called brain plasticity is enhanced from relatively early stage after the stroke’s onset by rehabilitation, and it is known to lead to functional recovery. Acute phase rehabilitation needs to be started as early as possible, after the onset of stroke, while the patient is still in the bedridden. The primary goals of such acute rehabilitation are prevention of disuse syndrome, early improvement of ADL, and to make someone is independent as possible and promotion of social reintegration. Many evidences prove that promotion of acute care and rehabilitation of stroke, carried out in the stroke unit or stroke rehabilitation unit, and early supported discharge, reduced the duration of hospitalization and improves ADL and QOL, as it gives long-term outcome. The result shows that stroke patients, who were admitted to a special ward carrying out organized multidisciplinary rehabilitation such as a stroke unit or stroke rehabilitation, had lower mortality and a higher home return rather than those treated in the ordinary unit, still after 10 years of their strokes. While care and service of rehabilitation system is at low level in our country, we need to introduce and establish such an effective system of acute care and rehabilitation of stroke, based at those evidences.