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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Optimized Management of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke
Published on: January 18, 2018
The development and use of a method to compare the costs of acute stroke across Europe
1Department of Public Health Sciences, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London, UK. richard.grieve@lshtm.ac.uk
Background:
there is a need for more information on the costs of different ways of managing stroke. Methods to compare the costs of stroke care in different countries have not been previously developed.
Objective:
to develop and use a method to compare the costs of acute stroke care across Europe.
Setting:
acute hospitals in 13 different European centres.
Subjects And Methods:
we included in the study stroke patients hospitalized during 1996-7 at 13 centres across Europe (n=2072). We recorded the duration of acute hospital stay and use of investigations. Mean costs for each centre were predicted using linear regression analysis to adjust for case-mix differences.
Results:
the average acute hospital stay ranged from 9 days (Spain) to 35 days (UK; P < 0.001). The predicted mean cost of treating conscious, continent men aged > 74 ranged from $220 (95% confidence interval 191-254) in Latvia to $5164 (4294-6191) in Austria.
Conclusions:
differences in the acute costs of stroke exist across Europe because of differences in clinical practice and unit costs. This methodology will be used to capture the costs incurred by a broad range of care providers. These estimates will then be suitable for using in cost-effectiveness analysis.
