Management of Stroke in Public Teaching Hospitals, A Cross Sectional Study, Khartoum-Sudan, February 2021

Author(s): Ahmed Ali Eltayeb Elamin, Ahmed Osman Ahmed Mohamed, Musaab DM Dafaalla, Mohamed Anwer, Mohamed Alebeed, Elfatih A Hasabo, Abdalla abbas adam massry, Osman Taleballah, Ihab B Abdalrahman

Introduction: Stroke is considered a growing health issue with high burden.The study was conducted among 258 participants in Soba university hospital, Ibrahim Malik teaching hospital, and Bahri teaching hospital. The study aimed to compare the clinical practice of the management protocol to the NICE guidelines for stroke 2016, and to determine the level of appropriate reporting of stroke management in the medical records.

Materials and methods: Observational cross-sectional hospital-based study. Total coverage of stroke patients’ medical records in the period between February to March 2021. Data were coded, and analyzed by SPSS version 23.

Results: About two third of the participants had their blood pressure lowered within the primary management. The hospitals were 100% adherent to secondary prevention measures’ guidelines. However, Lower adherence was reported for the early hospital management (81.4%) and the primary management (83.8%). Furthermore, there was marked under-documentation of cases in both primary and secondary management with only ( 35.4%) and (20.8% ) of stroke patients were reported respectively.

Conclusion: Three-quarters of the participants received an emergency assessment by a specialist physician and were monitored closely. Moreover, The majority of the hemorrhagic stroke had their blood pressure lowered with minimum surgical intervention, this was explained by lack of adequate surgical infrastructure due to poor health finance in Sudan. Fortunately, high overall adherence rates to the stroke management guidelines were shown among different hospitals in this study. However, under-documentation of cases and their details was noticed.