Assessment of Average Length of Stay among Stroke Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Stroke is defined as a clinical syndrome where sudden onset neurological deficit appears and remains for 24 hours or more due to vascular compromise. Stroke is the leading cause of disability worldwide and the second leading cause of death. Certain risk factors have been discussed in the literature previously which are strongly associated with stroke. However, the literature is scarce in terms of risk factors affecting the hospital stay of patients suffering from stroke. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the risk factors that may affect the hospital stay in stroke patients. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted prospectively at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi where length of hospital stay among stroke patients were included. The length of hospital stay (LOS) was found and compared by dividing the included participants into subgroups including age (30-50 and 51-80), gender (male and female), diabetes mellitus type II (yes or no), hypertension (yes or no), duration of disease (2 days), smoking (yes or no), BMI, and type of stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic). Results: We included 94 stroke patients. The LOS in hospital was significantly associated with age (P=0.01), gender (0.01), diabetes mellitus type II (P=0.04), smoking (P=0.01), BMI (P=0.01) while it was not associated significantly with hypertension (P=0.09), duration of disease (P=0.05) and type of stroke (P=0.08). Conclusion: LOS after stroke differed according to the sex, age, diabetes mellitus type II, and BMI. Hence, BMI and smoking are modifiable risk factors that could decrease the LOS while more efforts can be made to control blood sugars at optimum levels for further decreasing the LOS. Keywords: Stroke, Factors, Predictors, Hospital stay, Clinical syndrome, Morbidity.