Patient management in the recovery period of stroke

Abstract

Stroke heads the list of all causes of disability in middle-aged and elderly people. In recent years, there have been about 30% of morbid events among able-bodied persons (less than 65 years of age). The major post-stroke incapacitating disorders are motor and speech defects, cognitive and psychoemotional disorders, and pelvic organ dysfunctions. The patients’ quality of life largely depends on the degree of recovery of lost functions. In turn, the degree of their recovery depends on the start, proportioning, and continuity of initiated rehabilitation measures and on whether the patient has cognitive, speech, and psychoemotional problems and pelvic organ dysfunctions. Unfortunately, after discharge from a specialized unit, only a small number of post-stroke patients are admitted to specialized rehabilitation centers. The responsibility of caring for these patients rests with their relatives and outpatient physicians. The main tasks in the early and late recovery periods following stroke are, in addition to the prevention of recurrent stroke, the implementation of rehabilitation programs to correct motor and speech disorders and cognitive impairments, the stabilization of emotions, and the provision of proper and qualitative general care for patients with severe motor defects and pelvic organ dysfunctions. The paper considers the main principles of patient management in the early and late post-stroke recovery periods. The authors give rehabilitation recommendations and main errors in routine practice (their relatives and junior medical staff have no speech contact with patients having speech disorders; psychoemotional disorders are underestimated and uncorrected; proper general care for patients with pelvic organ dysfunctions is absent).