6533b820fe1ef96bd12799aa

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Der Schlaganfall als medizinischer Notfall

subject

description

Studies into the pathophysiology of acute ischaemic stroke have indicated that treatment options are likely to be optimised when early signs of stroke are recognised and treatment is initiated within 3 hours from symptom onset. For most patients there is a long delay between the onset of symptoms and the start of therapy. Many factors are responsible for this time delay: signs and symptoms often go unrecognised by patients, relatives and bystanders and stroke is not given a high priority by medical staff. Although a small number of stroke patients is treated as emergency and attended to by the emergency medical services within this time window, this number could easily be increased by intensified public and emergency personnel education. For the future, we hope that emergency medical services (EMS) will be able to initiate therapies which must be administered within the first few hours of acute stroke. Standard of care by the EMS personnel includes maintenance of oxygenation, treatment of cardiac arrhythmia and hypertension as well as hyperglycemia and hyperthermia. Early notification by the emergency medical services about stroke patients would enable stroke teams to be present at admission, thus improving the likelihood of a better outcome for patients.