THE LEGNAGO HOSPITAL – BASED STROKE REGISTRY

M. Turazzini, G. Ferriani,M. Corno, R. Del Colle, B.Costa, M. Silvestri

Divisione Neurologica and Stroke Unit , Ospedale Civile di Legnago , Italy

Background and objective: the Legnago hospital-based stroke registry started in January 1999, in order  to collect clinical data of hospitalized stroke patients, using a standardized prospective protocol.We report the data related to the period between January 1999 and September 2000.

Patients and methods: the data presented refer to a 21-month period and 685 consecutive patients with stroke ( 339 M, 358 F, mean age 69.9, range 26-98) admitted to the general Hospital of the city of Legnago, Italy.

Results and discussion: all 685 pts were admitted to our Stroke Unit; according to the TOAST criteria ischemic stroke occurred in 77.4% and cerebral hemorrhage in 22.6% ( without neurosurgery indications).The average time between the onset of the symptoms and the admission to our Division was 8.3 hours ( range 1-23); the average of hospitalization was 9.1 days; the 76% of patients was dismissed and come back home, while 15.3% was transferred to a Rehabilitation Centre.Inhospital death occurred in 9%. Among risk factors hypertension was the most frequent one.Pulmonary  (13%) and urinary ( 15%) infections were the most frequent non neurological complications; seizures (4,2%) and hemorrhagic transformation of cerebral infarction (3.7%) were the most frequent neurological complications.