Admissions, patterns of utilization and disposition of cases of acute stroke in Brisbane hospitals.

In a population of slightly-more than one million persons, all cases of acute admission to hospital for cerebrovascular disease during 1984 were studied. Of the 2676 hospital admissions, 91% were of public-hospital patients. Of the 1908 patients who were aged more than 25 years and whose conditions were assigned the International classification of diseases' (ICD-9) codes (430-437) for cerebrovascular accidents, 1264 (1.8 patients per 1000 population of older than 25 years of age) cases were completed strokes, and 644 (1.0 patients per 1000 population of older than 25 years of age) cases were transient ischaemic attacks. There was no significant difference between the specific aetiological types of stroke that were diagnosed neuroradiologically and those that were diagnosed clinically. Among the cases of completed strokes, 54% of cases were thrombotic, 11% of cases were embolic, and 15% of cases were haemorrhagic, while nearly 20% of cases were unclassified. Twenty-one per cent of patients who were admitted to hospital with completed strokes died within two weeks of their admission, 28% of such patients were discharged home, 8% of such patients were transferred to full-maintenance care, and the remaining 43% of such patients were transferred for inpatient rehabilitation. The median length of stay for patients with completed strokes was 11.8 days compared with 6.2 days for patients with transient ischaemic attacks.