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| THE EDITORIAL DEBATE: PROS AND CONS |
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| Year : 2016 | Volume
: 64
| Issue : 7 | Page : 6-7 |
Management of stroke: The triumphs and the travails
MV Padma Srivastava
Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
| Date of Web Publication | 3-Mar-2016 |
Correspondence Address:
M V Padma Srivastava
Department of Neurology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0028-3886.178026
How to cite this article:
Padma Srivastava M V. Management of stroke: The triumphs and the travails. Neurol India 2016;64, Suppl S1:6-7 |
Cerebrovascular diseases impose an overwhelming requirement for astute perception of the complexities of anatamo-physio-pathological array of actions of the intricate and extremely complex vascular-neural-endothelial-glial networks. For anyone who wishes to foray into an all encompassing and complete understanding of "stroke", the field throws open continuous challenges.
Stroke is the second commonest cause of death in India. According to ICMR statistics, 1,65,000 strokes occur each year, with nearly one stroke every 40 seconds and one stroke death every 4 minutes. Amongst the stroke survivors, many are afflicted with serious long-term disability. [1],[2],[3],[4]
Many Indian hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure and organization required to triage and treat patients with stroke quickly and efficiently. The clinical stroke services across the country need to be optimized for the delivery of adequate stroke care. The existing treatment gaps in stroke care include a dismal rate (0.5%) of thrombolysis for stroke; and, non-availability of 24x7 stroke physicians, stroke interventionalists, stroke area maps, stroke care pathways, stroke units, stroke teams, sufficient community awareness programs, and efficient public emergency ambulance systems, which are all essential elements necessary to provide optimal stroke care to the community. It is imperative and immediately necessary that adequate measures are implemented to meet the stroke epidemic in India. [5],[6],[7],[8],[9],[10],[11]
There have been amazing advances in the understanding of management and outcomes of stroke in the last decade. There is a palpable paradigm shift in approach to a stroke patient from one of nihilism to the current era of hope, aggression and optimism. Central to this change are the enormous advances in neuroimaging technology, which has transformed the way we assess a stroke patient. In minutes, we can obtain information on the type of stroke, the cause, vessels involved, subtype, best treatment protocols, prognosis and recurrence risk.
Endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a therapy with a visible effect. With prompt and effective reperfusion, our stroke patients with hemiplegia and aphasia can walk back into their lives and integrate as normal members of the society. All the recent trials, MR CLEAN, EXTEND-1A, SWIFT-PRIME, REVASCAT, THRACE, THERAPY [12],[13],[14],[15],[16],[17],[18] have given unequivocal results in favour of endovascular intervention in selected patients. We have now entered a new era of stroke therapy for major acute ischemic stroke, aneurysmal bleed, and revascularization for major artery occlusions. Better devices, better techniques and better expertise have all increasingly improved outcomes after stroke. Endovascular treatment has become a new standard of care for large vessel AIS.
We will need to evolve triage rules, systems and processes, and train new and existing emergency personnel. We will need to assess the medical aspects of care including the thrombolytic drugs in combination with endovascular thrombectomy, anaesthesia use, adjuvant antithrombotic therapy, and medical management of blood pressure. We will need to identify the best and most appropriate imaging selection techniques for implementing optimal, time-sensitive management strategies for stroke treatment.
The new mantra is "time" and the single unifying theme is "speed". Onset-to-reperfusion time is the new bottom line process metric and remains the fundamental principle for AIS.
As with intravenous recombinant tissue palsminogen activator, only a small percentage of patients with stroke will require endovascular therapy but this small percentage will drive the reorganization of systems of stroke care.
It is imperative that the focus remains "Indiacentric". It is pertinent to design and enact the mandate of National Programs for Non-Communicable Diseases of Government of India to address issues such as stroke burden in India, what is unique to India with regard to stroke in the young, the risk factors, stroke in pregnancy, the atherosclerotic pattern, stroke mortality and recurrence risk and most importantly, the management strategies including treatment and prevention best suited to Indian infrastructure and economy; to design protocols and blue prints for ensuring best management to most patients, regardless of the socioeconomic and geographic barriers across the country.
Telestroke services in our country can amalgamate the tertiary with the secondary and primary stroke care services and reach out to the remote and underprivileged sections of our society. Using low cost smart phone technology and "whattsapp" social networking sites, the state of Himachal Pradesh has successfully implemented the "Telestroke" services in the entire state with 12 district hospitals and just 4 neurologists. They have successfully established acute stroke care pathways and thrombolysed patients with AIS at the district level with trained emergency doctors, free of cost to the patients. This enormous success of the stroke program in Himachal Pradesh should be the way forward for rest of the country.
The ultimate aim of any therapeutic strategy is maximum restoration possible and eventual return to normalcy of function. The non-regenerative capability of an injured adult brain has been recently challenged and neural plasticity has been documented in both experimental and clinical global and focal brain ischemia. Considering the fact that the neuronal circuitry is a complex array of neurons and connections, the possibility of enhancing reconstruction of damaged neuronal network by means of drugs, devices and robotics is becoming increasingly feasible and possible, much to the delight of scientists working in the field of restorative medicine.
Needless to say, we are at the threshold of exciting times; of changing landscapes and receding horizons; of what is possible in preventing stroke, treating stroke, and rehabilitating a stroke victim. Pathways of stroke care and stroke recovery cannot be expected to be smooth. But triumphs can only be achieved after travails! And it is worth it!
| » References | |  |
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| This article has been cited by | | 1 |
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| M.V. Padma Srivastava, Rohit Bhatia, Venugopalan Y. Vishnu, Mayank Goyal | | Stroke. 2020; 51(7): 1969 | | [Pubmed] | [DOI] | |
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