BACKGROUND: Organised stroke unit care is provided by multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a ward dedicated to stroke patients, with a mobile stroke team or within a generic disability service (mixed rehabilitation ward). OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of stroke unit care compared with alternative forms of care for people following a stroke. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the trials registers of the Cochrane Stroke Group (January 2013) and the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group (January 2013), MEDLINE (2008 to September 2012), EMBASE (2008 to September 2012) and CINAHL (1982 to September 2012). In an effort to identify further published, unpublished and ongoing trials, we searched 17 trial registers (January 2013), performed citation tracking of included studies, checked reference lists of relevant articles and contacted trialists. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled clinical trials comparing organised inpatient stroke unit care with an alternative service. After formal risk of bias assessment, we have now excluded previously included quasi-randomised trials. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors initially assessed eligibility and trial quality. We checked descriptive details and trial data with the co-ordinators of the original trials. MAIN RESULTS: We included 28 trials, involving 5855 participants, comparing stroke unit care with an alternative service. More-organised care was consistently associated with improved outcomes. Twenty-one trials (3994 participants) compared stroke unit care with care provided in general wards. Stroke unit care showed reductions in the odds of death recorded at final (median one year) follow-up (odds ratio (OR) 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69 to 0.94; P = 0.005), the odds of death or institutionalised care (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.89; P = 0.0003) and the odds of death or dependency (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.90; P = 0.0007). Sensitivity analyses indicated that the observed benefits remained when the analysis was restricted to securely randomised trials that used unequivocally blinded outcome assessment with a fixed period of follow-up. Outcomes were independent of patient age, sex, initial stroke severity or stroke type, and appeared to be better in stroke units based in a discrete ward. There was no indication that organised stroke unit care resulted in a longer hospital stay. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Stroke patients who receive organised inpatient care in a stroke unit are more likely to be alive, independent, and living at home one year after the stroke. The benefits were most apparent in units based in a discrete ward. We observed no systematic increase in the length of inpatient stay.
BACKGROUND: Organised stroke unit care is provided by multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a ward dedicated to stroke patients, with a mobile stroke team or within a generic disability service (mixed rehabilitation ward). OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of stroke unit care compared with alternative forms of care for people following a stroke. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the trials registers of the Cochrane Stroke Group (January 2013) and the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group (January 2013), MEDLINE (2008 to September 2012), EMBASE (2008 to September 2012) and CINAHL (1982 to September 2012). In an effort to identify further published, unpublished and ongoing trials, we searched 17 trial registers (January 2013), performed citation tracking of included studies, checked reference lists of relevant articles and contacted trialists. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled clinical trials comparing organised inpatient stroke unit care with an alternative service. After formal risk of bias assessment, we have now excluded previously included quasi-randomised trials. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors initially assessed eligibility and trial quality. We checked descriptive details and trial data with the co-ordinators of the original trials. MAIN RESULTS: We included 28 trials, involving 5855 participants, comparing stroke unit care with an alternative service. More-organised care was consistently associated with improved outcomes. Twenty-one trials (3994 participants) compared stroke unit care with care provided in general wards. Stroke unit care showed reductions in the odds of death recorded at final (median one year) follow-up (odds ratio (OR) 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.69 to 0.94; P = 0.005), the odds of death or institutionalised care (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.89; P = 0.0003) and the odds of death or dependency (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.90; P = 0.0007). Sensitivity analyses indicated that the observed benefits remained when the analysis was restricted to securely randomised trials that used unequivocally blinded outcome assessment with a fixed period of follow-up. Outcomes were independent of patient age, sex, initial stroke severity or stroke type, and appeared to be better in stroke units based in a discrete ward. There was no indication that organised stroke unit care resulted in a longer hospital stay. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Stroke patients who receive organised inpatient care in a stroke unit are more likely to be alive, independent, and living at home one year after the stroke. The benefits were most apparent in units based in a discrete ward. We observed no systematic increase in the length of inpatient stay.
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Roy Burstein; Bianca Calabria; Benjamin Campbell; Charles E Canter; Hélène Carabin; Jonathan Carapetis; Loreto Carmona; Claudia Cella; Fiona Charlson; Honglei Chen; Andrew Tai-Ann Cheng; David Chou; Sumeet S Chugh; Luc E Coffeng; Steven D Colan; Samantha Colquhoun; K Ellicott Colson; John Condon; Myles D Connor; Leslie T Cooper; Matthew Corriere; Monica Cortinovis; Karen Courville de Vaccaro; William Couser; Benjamin C Cowie; Michael H Criqui; Marita Cross; Kaustubh C Dabhadkar; Manu Dahiya; Nabila Dahodwala; James Damsere-Derry; Goodarz Danaei; Adrian Davis; Diego De Leo; Louisa Degenhardt; Robert Dellavalle; Allyne Delossantos; Julie Denenberg; Sarah Derrett; Don C Des Jarlais; Samath D Dharmaratne; Mukesh Dherani; Cesar Diaz-Torne; Helen Dolk; E Ray Dorsey; Tim Driscoll; Herbert Duber; Beth Ebel; Karen Edmond; Alexis Elbaz; Suad Eltahir Ali; Holly Erskine; Patricia J Erwin; Patricia Espindola; Stalin E Ewoigbokhan; Farshad Farzadfar; Valery Feigin; David T Felson; Alize Ferrari; Cleusa P Ferri; 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Ratilal Lalloo; Laura L Laslett; Tim Lathlean; Janet L Leasher; Yong Yi Lee; James Leigh; Daphna Levinson; Stephen S Lim; Elizabeth Limb; John Kent Lin; Michael Lipnick; Steven E Lipshultz; Wei Liu; Maria Loane; Summer Lockett Ohno; Ronan Lyons; Jacqueline Mabweijano; Michael F MacIntyre; Reza Malekzadeh; Leslie Mallinger; Sivabalan Manivannan; Wagner Marcenes; Lyn March; David J Margolis; Guy B Marks; Robin Marks; Akira Matsumori; Richard Matzopoulos; Bongani M Mayosi; John H McAnulty; Mary M McDermott; Neil McGill; John McGrath; Maria Elena Medina-Mora; Michele Meltzer; George A Mensah; Tony R Merriman; Ana-Claire Meyer; Valeria Miglioli; Matthew Miller; Ted R Miller; Philip B Mitchell; Charles Mock; Ana Olga Mocumbi; Terrie E Moffitt; Ali A Mokdad; Lorenzo Monasta; Marcella Montico; Maziar Moradi-Lakeh; Andrew Moran; Lidia Morawska; Rintaro Mori; Michele E Murdoch; Michael K Mwaniki; Kovin Naidoo; M Nathan Nair; Luigi Naldi; K M Venkat Narayan; Paul K Nelson; Robert G Nelson; Michael C Nevitt; Charles R Newton; Sandra Nolte; Paul Norman; Rosana Norman; Martin O'Donnell; Simon O'Hanlon; Casey Olives; Saad B Omer; Katrina Ortblad; Richard Osborne; Doruk Ozgediz; Andrew Page; Bishnu Pahari; Jeyaraj Durai Pandian; Andrea Panozo Rivero; Scott B Patten; Neil Pearce; Rogelio Perez Padilla; Fernando Perez-Ruiz; Norberto Perico; Konrad Pesudovs; David Phillips; Michael R Phillips; Kelsey Pierce; Sébastien Pion; Guilherme V Polanczyk; Suzanne Polinder; C Arden Pope; Svetlana Popova; Esteban Porrini; Farshad Pourmalek; Martin Prince; Rachel L Pullan; Kapa D Ramaiah; Dharani Ranganathan; Homie Razavi; Mathilda Regan; Jürgen T Rehm; David B Rein; Guiseppe Remuzzi; Kathryn Richardson; Frederick P Rivara; Thomas Roberts; Carolyn Robinson; Felipe Rodriguez De Leòn; Luca Ronfani; Robin Room; Lisa C Rosenfeld; Lesley Rushton; Ralph L Sacco; Sukanta Saha; Uchechukwu Sampson; Lidia Sanchez-Riera; Ella Sanman; David C Schwebel; James Graham Scott; Maria Segui-Gomez; Saeid Shahraz; Donald S Shepard; 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