Candelise L, Bersano A
Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche, Milan, Italy.
Neurol Sci. 2006 Jun;27 Suppl 3:S223-4. doi: 10.1007/s10072-006-0621-z.
It is well known that stroke is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Previous studies and metaanalysis provide evidence favouring care of stroke patients in Stroke Units (SU). We published data on SU coverage for seven Italian regions during 2000-2001. The aim of this study is to conduct a new recent survey of SUs in the entire national territory and to evaluate changes in number of SUs and in organisation of in-hospital care in the seven Italian regions evaluated in our previous survey. Hospital services were identified through the diagnosis-related groups (DRG 14) from national hospital discharge registers. We selected services recording at least 50 acute stroke discharges per year. The characteristics of hospital services were obtained from a structured questionnaire submitted by phone by trained researchers to the doctors in charge of services. A SU was defined as a ward that admits acute stroke patients cared for in dedicated beds and by dedicated staff. Out of 676 hospital services evaluated during 2003-2004, 68 were SUs. The national coverage for SU services was 10%, ranging from 0% to 50% in different regions. In 2003-2004 SUs admitted 10% of the total national acute stroke cases. SUs have a more facilitated access to diagnostic evaluations and also seem to be better organised than general wards. Between 2000 and 2004 the number of SUs increased from 7% to 11% in the seven regions evaluated in our first survey. Notwithstanding we found an increase of 30% in the number of SUs, at least in the regions previously evaluated, there is still a shortage of SU beds and high regional heterogeneity.
众所周知，中风与高发病率和高死亡率相关。先前的研究和荟萃分析提供了支持在卒中单元（SU）对中风患者进行护理的证据。我们发表了2000 - 2001年期间意大利七个地区SU覆盖率的数据。本研究的目的是对全国范围内的SU进行一项最新调查，并评估在我们之前调查的意大利七个地区中SU数量的变化以及住院护理组织的变化。通过国家医院出院登记册中的诊断相关组（DRG 14）来识别医院服务。我们选择每年记录至少50例急性中风出院病例的服务。医院服务的特征是由经过培训的研究人员通过电话向负责服务的医生提交的结构化问卷获得的。SU被定义为一个病房，该病房收治在专用床位由专业人员护理的急性中风患者。在2003 - 2004年评估的676项医院服务中，有68项是SU。SU服务在全国的覆盖率为10%，不同地区的覆盖率从0%到50%不等。在2003 - 2004年，SU收治了全国急性中风病例总数的10%。SU比普通病房更容易获得诊断评估，而且组织似乎也更好。在2000年至2004年期间，在我们首次调查的七个地区中，SU的数量从7%增加到了11%。尽管我们发现SU的数量增加了30%，至少在之前评估的地区是这样，但SU床位仍然短缺，且地区差异很大。
