Essential Acute Stroke Care in Low Resource Settings: a Pilot studY

Essential Acute Stroke Care in Low Resource Settings: a Pilot Study

An investigator-initiated, evaluator-blinded, prospective, multi centre, before-and-after, effectiveness-implementation hybrid design study to assess the feasibility of essential acute stroke care in a low resource setting

This is a multicentre, before and after, effectiveness-implementation hybrid study design with blinded outcome assessment. Patients admitted to the participating hospitals will be managed under usual care conditions for three months (control arm). This will be followed by the training of the doctors and nurses in those hospitals on essential acute stroke care management. Patient management for the following three months after the training (intervention) will then be assessed to evaluate its impact on the care and clinical outcome of the patients.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults (age ≥18 years)
• A clinical or imaging-based diagnosis of acute stroke (ischemic or haemorrhagic) within 72 hours of stroke symptom onset
• Provision of written informed consent
• Subjects in observational, natural history and/or epidemiological studies not involving an intervention are eligible.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who have undergone intravenous thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy
• Patients who are planned for transfer to the intensive care unit
• Subarachnoid haemorrhage
• Participation in an interventional medical investigation or clinical trial currently or within the past 3 months.