The Effect of Early Intensive Neurological Treatment on the Prognosis of Patients’ Return to Full Functional Capacity after Stroke

. Recent decades have brought a dramatic change in the approach to the assessment of treatment results and the prognosis regarding future health condition in diseases of neurological background. It is getting an increasingly more common practice in research on chronic neurological diseases effects to depart from the principle of an exclusively biological assessment of human health, instead a more holistic approach has been adopted where particular attention is drawn to patient’s emotional experience, his well-being as well as to the ability to function in everyday life. Aim . The analysis of the effect of early intensive neurological treatment on the prognosis of patients’ return to full functional capacity after stroke. Material and Methods . The research was carried out in the Neurological Department Independent Public Hospital no. 4 (IPH 4) in Lublin on a randomly selected group of one hundred patients, who were characterised by the type of stroke, socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, place of residence, marital status, education) as well as by coexisting diseases. The level of patients’ functional capacity after completion of intensive neurological treatment was assessed by means of the FIM Scale. Progression of functional capacity during the period of the patients’ stay in a stroke unit was measured based on the Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS). Results . The research results indicate the high efficiency of a professional medical approach in the acute period of vascular disease of the brain. Patients leaving the stroke unit were on the right path to return to active life from the period preceding the illness. Less than half of respondents (42%) after the first stage of treatment regained full functional capacity. The least certain prognosis of the first stage of treatment occurs in the case of ischemic stroke. In all patients there was observed a visible increase in functional capacity in the course of treatment. Conclusions . 1. After a transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients almost always (91.67%) recover the full functional capability after the first stage of treatment. 2. There was a very large improvement in the long term capacity index in the group of patients after hemorrhagic stroke. 3. In all patients, the neurological intensive treatment contributed to a clear improvement in the prognosis of the forecast regarding further improvement of functional capacity. (JNNN 2015;4(1):13–18)