[Clinical pathways: bases, description and potential uses in neurology]

Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed the introduction of different procedures for coordinating clinical care, often shown as new tools in the hospital administration setting. Clinical or critical pathways are among these standardization methods of health care. In this article, we describe the characteristics of the clinical pathways and review their potential uses in neurology, especially in common conditions like stroke. In the following, we describe a clinical pathway for treating acute episodes in patients with relapsing-remitting of secondarily progressive forms of multiple sclerosis which was developed in the Son Dureta Hospital, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. We carry out a critical assessment of this and other standardization methods.