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Browsing Masters by Subject ": Stroke, morbidity"

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    A Retrospective Descriptive Study on Cerebrovascular Accidents at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (Kath) in Kumasi.
    (2008-07-12) Adjepong, Grace Attah
    INTRODUCTION: Stroke is a major challenge facing medicine with an alarming statistics of being the second leading cause of death and the leading cause of physical disability worldwide. Recognition and management of risk factors remain key to reducing morbidity and mortality from stroke. OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this project was to conduct a retrospective study to assess stroke outcomes among stroke patients at KATH for the years 2006 and 2007. METHODS/ DESIGN: A retrospective descriptive study involving review of adult stroke patients records on; age, sex, length of hospital stay, outcome of management (dead/alive), socio-demography, blood pressure on admission and before discharge or death, patient’s knowledge of his/her hypertension status and the most common presenting features. DATA ANALYSIS \ STATISTICAL METHOD Data was first entered in excel 2003 and transported into Epi info version 3.4.1 for further statistical analysis. RESULTS: Stroke constituted 1.3% of total hospital admissions and 6.3% of total hospital deaths within the period under review, 9.1% of total medical adult admissions and 13.2% of the total medical adult mortality were ascribed to stroke. A total of 1,050 cases made up of 537 (51.1%) males and 513 (48.9%) females were involved. 456(43.4%. 95% CI = 40.4%-46.5%) patients died from stroke of which 244 (53.5%) were men (RR= 1.10. 95% CI = 0.96-1.26).The peak age was 66-75 years representing 274 (26.1%) of stroke cases. The mean age of those who died was higher than that of those who survived (65.37 years versus 62.38 years).The average length of hospital stay of those who died was lower than that of those who survived (5.13 days versus 7.07). Hemiplegia/hemiparesia and hypertension were topmost on the list of most commonly presenting features. Fifty-four patients (18%. 95% CI = 13.8%–22.8%) had previous episode of stroke. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Stroke is an important health problem affecting both males and females with hypertension as a major risk factor. Majority of stroke victims belong to the active segment of the population. Attention needs to be focused on patients, health personnel and public education with the intention of reducing as many modifiable risk factors as possible to stop the weakening of the country’s labor force by the disease and to forestall premature deaths.