Telestroke Allows Round-the-Clock Thrombolysis

Telestroke Allows Round-the-Clock Thrombolysis
Monday, March 7, 2011
By: Eleanor McDermid

Eleanor McDermid

Use of telestroke to support hospitals without 24-hour neurology coverage can help to ensure high rates of thrombolysis, shows a Finnish study.

More than half of telestroke consultations during the 2-year study resulted in the patients undergoing thrombolysis, the researchers report in the journal Neurology.

This rate is higher than those reported in many previous studies. Editorialists David Hess and Jeffrey Switzer (Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, USA) speculated that this reflects the expertise of the "spoke" hospitals in the study.

The community hospitals that comprised the spokes were relatively large (132-287 beds) and all had dedicated stroke units and on-site neurologists during the day; the "hub" hospital (University of Helsinki Central Hospital) only assisted with out-of-hours thrombolysis decisions.