Clinical Characteristics And Treatment Outcome Of Stroke Patients Managed In Jimma University Medical Center

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke localized or widespread impairment of brain function brought on by blockage and/or rupture of blood vessels that supply the brain, with symptoms lasting 24 h or longer or fatalities with no other obvious explanation other than that of vascular origin. Disability-adjusted life years due to stroke are increasing largely due to population growth and aging. Stroke is one the leading causes of mortality and morbidity globally. The magnitude of stroke-related deaths in Ethiopia is 6.23% out of total deaths, and the age-adjusted death rate of stroke in the country is 89.82 per 100,000 population6. Various reports indicated that 90% of the burden of stroke is attributable to modifiable risk factors. The improvement status of stroke during discharge in Ethiopia is 72.28%. Objective: To assess clinical characteristics and outcome of acute stroke patients managed in JUMC Methods: Institutional based retrospective cross sectional study will be conducted from Miazia 1, 2015 to Tikimt 30, 2016. A total of 198 charts were included. The charts were selected using systematic random sampling after determining the sampling interval (K) by dividing the number of total charts by the desired sample size and the (K) value becomes 1.5. Data was collected using a pretested questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were computed to present the data and describe the study variables. Logistic regression analysis was done to identify factors associated with the outcome. Results: A total of 198 charts reviewed in the study, giving a response rate of 100%. From a total of 198 study participants, more than half (65.8%) were discharged with improvement whereas 16(7.5%) of respondents discharged with the same condition as admission, 10(5%) were deteriorated and 42(21.6%) were died in the hospital. The leading cause of death was elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) 20(10.1%) followed by 18((9%) of Multi Organ Failure (MOF) and 4(2%) of aspiration pneumonia. Conclusion: The management outcome stroke patients generally have still high (21.6%) mortality and (7.5% condition as admission, 5% were deteriorated) complication rates. This is due to many factors like late appearance of patients from symptom onset (100% participants arrived greater than 4.5 hours after symptom onset) which hinders institution of important medications like thrombolytics.