Clinical audit of stroke patients presenting at a teaching hospital

ABSTRACT

To determine the mode of presentation, etiology and outcome of patients with stroke. This retrospective one year study was conducted on 50 diagnosed patients with stroke, in the Department of Medicine, Muhammad Medical College Hospital [MMCH] Mirpurkhas from 1[st] August 2007 to 31[st] July 2008. All the information was collected from attendants of patients admitted in the intensive care unit for the management of stroke. Collected information was summarized for mode of presentation, etiology such as cerebral hemorrhage, infarction and subarachnoid haemorrhage with the help of computed tomography [CT] scan and outcome of patients with stroke. The data was entered and analyzed in SPSS V 10.1 software Total 50 patients [30 males and 20 females] were studied. The average age at presentation was 59.5 years. The most common complains were unilateral weakness seen in 16 [32%] patients, loss of consciousness reported by 25 [50%] patients while fever with vomiting was observed in eight [16%] patients. Hypertension was the most frequent risk factor found in 28 [56%] patients whereas 18 [36%] patients were smokers as well as diabetic. Cerebral hemorrhage was seen in 18 [36%] patients, whereas ischemia was responsible for 31[62%] patients. Subarachnoid hemorrhage was found in one [2%] patient only. Eighteen [36%] patients were discharged alive while the remaining 32 [46%] patients died due to fatal nature of disease. This study showed that the ischemia was the predominant cause of stroke in our patients. Mostly observed in older age group, hypertensive and smoker males. Morbidity and mortality was observed in those patients who reached hospital late. Further basic studies should be conducted for the prevention, early recognition and proper management of risk factors to reduce the incidence of disease and its fatal outcome: