The Stroke Unit Trialists Collaboration (SUTC)

LITERATURE REVIEW

Stroke units, introduced in the 1950's, have become an established essential component of an effective functioning stroke service, in the modern stroke services provided today. A stroke unit refers to organized inpatient care for stroke patients, provided by a multidisciplinary team that specialise in stroke management. The Stroke Unit Trialists Collaboration (SUTC) has carried out Cochrane reviews on stroke unit trials since 1997. Findings, from random trials and systematic reviews, have shown that the provision of care in a stroke unit can increase a patient’s chances of survival, which enables them to return home and regain independence in activities of daily life (Langhorne et al., 2012). Stroke units seem to benefit

a wide range of patients who have suffered a stroke ( Stroke Unit Trialists, 1997), including younger (aged 75 years) patients with various severities of stroke, as well as those who have had either ischaemic or haemorrhagic strokes (Ronning et al., 2001). The series of SUTC reviews is widely cited by clinical guidelines and national stroke strategies as the evidence base for their recommendations on stroke unit care. However, most of the stroke unit studies and service development have been conducted in high-income countries and, therefore, the findings cannot be generalized across developing countries. It raises the question as to whether such services and its applicability to low and middle-income countries are relevant. One way to address this question is to demonstrate that stroke units are likely to provide positive outcomes for stroke patients. This therefore, highlights the need for research in Ghana to investigate the impact of the first dedicated stroke unit in the country. This study is significant because the data and findings will add to the limited existing data on stroke units in low and middle income countries; such as Ghana. Considering that stroke mortality is an increasing concern in Ghana, there is an urgent requirement for services to address the growing burden of stroke, in so far as, it raises important questions about the stroke unit at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital: whether the unit can save lives and whether or not this is the way forward to address stroke mortality in Accra.