Stroke Is Best Managed by a Neurologist: Battle of the Titans

The world was created out of chaos. Early after the first immortals appeared on the scene, the titan Cronus and his brothers defended themselves against the future gods of Olympus for dominion, and lost. The titans were imprisoned in the bowels of the earth, while the victorious Olympian gods ascended, bringing new values and concepts into the world. —Greek mythology The deficit in stroke is neurological but the cause is vascular, complications are medical, and treatment should be multidisciplinary: no single aspect is overriding. Stroke patients require holistic care, expertly delivered. Neither American nor European stroke management guidelines mandate that a neurologist should deliver care.1,2 Let us examine the neurologist’s potential role in the patient journey.Although management is rarely influenced directly, lesion localization may be a specialist neurology task. The accuracy of clinical localization improves with the seniority of the neurologist, but modern cerebral imaging is supplanting this role. Severity scales are well applied by stroke nurses.3 …