Organised inpatient stroke-unit care¶

One-paragraph summary¶

This Cochrane review included 29 trials and 5,902 participants. Organized stroke-unit care reduced poor outcome (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.69–0.87), death (OR 0.76, 0.66–0.88), death or institutional care (OR 0.76, 0.67–0.85), and death or dependency (OR 0.75, 0.66–0.85), with median follow-up one year. Per 100 treated, the estimates corresponded to two additional survivors, six more living at home, and six more independent (PMID 32324916).

Key findings¶

Benefits were apparent across age, sex, severity, stroke type, and follow-up duration.
Discrete stroke wards: poor-outcome OR 0.78 (0.68–0.91).
Mobile stroke teams: OR 0.80 (0.52–1.22), low-quality evidence.
Length-of-stay evidence was heterogeneous (I²=85%) without systematic prolongation.

Limitations¶

Trials span changing background care and varied unit definitions.
Patient satisfaction evidence was unavailable and subjective-health evidence very low quality.
A “stroke unit” is a multidisciplinary process, not merely a geographic bed label.

Why it matters¶

The review shows that coordinated general stroke care yields an effect on survival and independence comparable in importance to many individual technologies and applies across stroke types.

Cited by wiki pages¶

overview
stroke units and systems of care
guidelines
patient experience and advocacy