Burden of Acute Stroke and Hospital Resources in the Campania Region of Italy

• Published in: Cerebrovascular diseases (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 116 - 121
• Main Authors: de Falco, Fabrizio A., Santangelo, Roberto, Majello, Luigi, Marasco, Giuseppe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland S. Karger AG 01.01.2002
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Child; Child, Preschool; Cost of Illness; Health Resources - utilization; Health Services Accessibility; Hospital Units - utilization; Humans; Incidence; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Italy - epidemiology; Length of Stay - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Neurology - statistics & numerical data; Original Paper; Patient Admission - statistics & numerical data; Recurrence; Stroke - diagnosis; Stroke - epidemiology; Stroke - therapy; Time Factors; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Utilization Review; Italy; Stroke; Management; Epidemiology; Healthcare burden
• ISSN: 1015-9770; 1421-9786
• DOI: 10.1159/000064740

We examined all the official hospital records referring to admissions for acute stroke (AS) (DRG 14) from January 1 to December 31, 1996 in Campania (Italy), a large region with 10% of the Italian population. Related healthcare burden and available resources were evaluated. During the study period, a total of 9,003 discharges were reported. We counted 11 neurological care units (NCU) committed to emergency in the region, with 230 hospital beds. The 4,890 admissions in NCU represented 54.3% of the total AS hospitalizations per year. A large number of strokes (45.7%) had no access to specialist assistance and were hospitalized mainly in general wards with a mean hospital stay of 12.7 days, compared with 9.5 days in NCU (p < 0.01). In our region, the number of hospital beds available for neurological emergencies do not meet the demand.