Neurological

ACS: Patients can be screened for stroke and trauma with STRAUMA Alert

HealthDay News – According to a study that took place virtually at the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons from October 23-27, the novel STRAUMA alarm activation enables an accelerated assessment of strokes and trauma.

Janet S. Lee, MD, of the University of Colorado at Aurora, and colleagues evaluated the impact of the STRAUMA alarm, a high-level combination of stroke and trauma activation for patients with suspected cerebrovascular accident and signs of trauma, on patient outcomes . The analysis included a retrospective review of 580 patients with signs of a cerebrovascular accident from January 2019 to September 2020 (111 had a STRAUMA warning and 469 had a stroke warning).

The researchers found that the STRAUMA group had a higher NIHSS (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale) score. The stroke group had a shorter time to computed tomography (CT; 16.9 versus 23.1 minutes) and a higher rate of tissue plasminogen activator administration (tPA; 27.3 versus 12.5 percent). The time to tPA was similar in both groups. Traumatic injuries were observed in 15 percent of the STRAUMA group, with a median injury severity of 9 in those with injuries. The STRAUMA group had a higher mortality (14.4 versus 6.0 percent). NIHSS and time to CT were identified as predictors of mortality.

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“It’s all about risk versus benefit,” Lee said in a statement. “The risk of trauma patients getting tPA and having catastrophic bleeding outweighs the risk of a slight delay in the CT scan. And our results ultimately show that no differences in the time to tPA were found in any of the patients who received tPA. “

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Subjects:

stroke

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