Prognostic study of different antioedema medications in cases of cerebrovascular accidents

ABSTRACT

We studied 38 [20 females and 18 mates] consecutive selected cases diagnosed as acute stroke with a mean age of 57.86 years. The patients were randomly allocated to one of three antioedema agents; 16 on furosemide, 12 on mannitol, and 10 on dexamethasone treatments. They were clinically assessed on alternate days till the end of 21-day period of the study and scored according to a clinical scoring system. CT was done pre-medication for all cases. Mortality rate was 53% in the furosemide treated group, 25% in the mannitol group, and 30% in the dexamethasone group. In the three groups, the survivors showed improvement in postmedication and final scores. The initial level of consciousness in our cases was a good predictive of antioedema drug. Cases with better level of consciousness had better scores at the end of the study. Cases presented with midline shift had poor prognosis. We found no difference between the three antioedema drugs as regards improvement of the clinical course in the survivors