Rural Victorian Telestroke project

Intravenous thrombolysis improves functional outcomes in acute ischaemic stroke. However, many rural stroke patients are denied thrombolysis because of a rural neurologist shortage. 'Telestroke' facilitates thrombolysis by providing remote access to neurologists via videoconferencing systems.

To develop a safe and feasible Telestroke system in a rural Victorian hospital that facilitates delivery of intravenous thrombolysis to acute ischaemic stroke patients.

A pilot videoconferencing Telestroke system was set up between Royal Melbourne Hospital and Northeast Health Wangaratta. Acute stroke patients presenting within 4.5 h of symptom onset without intracranial haemorrhage were eligible for Telestroke. However, eligible patients were excluded from Telestroke if they had haemorrhagic risk factors. Data were collected from intervention (October 2009-September 2010) and control group (October 2008-September 2009) by medical file audit. Primary outcome measure was percentage of patients thrombolysed. Secondary outcome measures included incidence of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage and door-to-computed tomography time.

One hundred and forty-five acute stroke patients presented in control year and 130 patients in intervention year. Fifty-four patients in intervention and 36 patients in control group were eligible for thrombolysis. In intervention group, 24 patients had Telestroke activated and 8 patients underwent thrombolysis. There was no thrombolysis in the control group. There were neither symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhages nor deaths attributable to thrombolysis. Median door-to-computed tomography time did not significantly differ between eligible patients in control and intervention groups.

Telestroke has the potential to bridge the gap of rural-metropolitan inequality in acute stroke care. Our Telestroke system successfully introduced safe thrombolysis and early specialist review of acute stroke patients in rural Victoria.