Stroke units in Nigeria: a report from a Nationwide organizational cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Introduction stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in Nigeria. Stroke unit care is crucial for reducing mortality and morbidity in stroke. This study describes the stroke units' structure, organization, and care process in Nigerian tertiary hospitals. Methods this study is a cross-sectional descriptive organizational survey-based study using an online structured questionnaire to collect information on the stroke units. Results five (8.6%) out of 58 hospitals had a stroke unit. The number of beds ranged between 10 and 27 with the coverage of hospital stroke patients ranging from 24% to 100%. All the centers had a multidisciplinary team for their unit. The basic required investigations like computerized tomography and electrocardiography were available in the centers. Thrombolytic therapy coverage was suboptimal in all the centers due to prolonged onset-to-arrival times and inaccessibility of thrombolytic medications. Conclusion there has been some progress in stroke unit availability since the country´s first stroke unit was established over a decade ago. However, there is still the need to create more stroke units in Nigeria and improve reperfusion therapy coverage.

Evaluating Serum Copeptin as a Promising Biomarker for Predicting Acute Ischaemic Stroke Severity: A Hospital-Based Study on Strokes

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Nonenhanced Computed Tomography Evaluation Of Ischemic Stroke Patients Presenting After 4.5 Hours From Onset Of Symptoms Using Aspects, Posterior Circulation-Aspects And X-Ray Attenuation Ratio: The “Tissue Window”

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