Stroke at university hospitals

ABSTRACT

Stroke is an important cause of death and neurological disability in developed and developing countries. It costs the national budget enormous amount of money due to loss of working days and spending on hospital beds occupied by stroke patients. Strokes can affect both sexes. It is more common in the elderly than in the young. Stroke can be divided in to two major types ischaemic and haemorrhagic. There are several risk factors for stroke such as hypertension, smoking, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, dyslipidoemia, etc... We randomized 585 patients admitted to Aleppo university hospital and Al Kindi Hospital. We studied stroke distribution according to age and sex. We also studied the changes in brain CT, ECG, Carotid doppler and echocardiography on our patients. We also looked at the risk factors and the prognosis. We find out that stroke in our patients is more common in males than females, lacunar infarction were the most common type of infarctions seen. We noted a delay in patient arrival to our hospitals. We also found out that many of the risk factors were not dealt with properly before stroke and not even diagnosed until lately. We recommend better health education among population in order to improve awareness of the risk factors. There is urgent need for patients to arrive early to our hospitals in order to be able to improve our management hence the prognosis