STROKE: CRITICAL APPRAISSAL OF INTENSIVE CARE MANAGEMENT

Stroke is a common medical condition in the medical units. Stroke patients are usually managed on the medical wards while some that needs organ support are admitted into the intensive care unit. However there is conflicting data on the benefits or otherwise of admitting stroke patients into the intensive care unit. This necessitated this study to know how much benefit is derived from admitting stroke patients into the intensive care unit.

The study aims at the benefits of admitting stroke patients into the intensive care unit. The objective included studying the prognostic factors that determines the outcome of stroke patients admitted into the intensive care unit.

The case files of all patients admitted and managed in the intensive care unit of LAUTECH teaching hospital between 2002 and 2014 were retrieved and were analysed. The factors used in analyzing included the type of stroke, the age of the patients, the Glasgow Coma scale at admission, the need for intubation and mechanical ventilation as well as the percentage mortality in each subsets.

A total of 48 patients were admitted over the study period of which 19 were males and 29 were females. The percentage mortality in females was 78.95 while mortality in males was 62.5%. The higher the age the worse the prognosis, the higher the GCS the better the prognosis. Patients that were intubated and ventilated had percentage mortality of 68.8% and better than non ventilated patients. The hemorrhagic strokes also carries worse prognosis.

The admission of stroke patients to the intensive care unit should be individualized considering the above mentioned prognostic factors. However patients that are likely to benefit from intensive care unit should be admitted early for them to derive the maximum benefits.