Changes in Functional Independence of Patients with Acute Stroke during Treatment

Abstract

Background. Ischemic stroke (IS) is one of the most topical medical and social problems because of high morbidity and severe residual disability. The goal of the research was to analyze influencing changes in the independence of patients with acute stroke during treatment. Methods included the retrospective research, carried out in September 2015– November, 2015, using Barthel Index test (BI), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and modifed Rankin scale (mRS). The research sample was 104 respondents, 48 of which underwent treatment with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), and 56 of them – not. Research fndings were processed using statistical “SPSS 17 for Windows” package. The research was carried out complying with the ethical principles. Results. Treatment by intravenous thrombolysis was applied to approximately half of IS patients. The majority of IS patients were of average severity state by neurological damage. There neurological state after the thrombolysis improved the state of 50% of patients on average in seven days. Half of IS patients were completely dependent before treatment and after the treatment the number of absolutely dependent patients decreased by 21.3%. The independence of patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis and non-treated did not vary signifcantly at the beginning and the end of the treatment, however, its change was insignifcantly higher for the patients to whom this treatment was applied than for the patients to whom this treatment was not applied. The independence before the treatment was higher of men than of women, and of the patients under 65 years old than of older patients. The change of independence was higher for patients under 65 years old than for the older ones, and there was no signifcant difference between men and women. Conclusions. The treatment by intravenous thrombolysis was applied to approximately half of the patients. The neurological damage was more severe for those who were 65 years old. After the treatment the state recovered for 9.6% and those were only men, the number of absolutely dependent persons decreased by 21.3%. Keywords: ischemic stroke, during treatment patients, independence.