ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether very old patients benefit from stroke unit. The aim of our work was to compare the clinical outcome of patients with ischemic stroke aged either 70 or 80 (G 1) versus oldest-old greater than or equal to 81 years (G 2). METHODS: Of 1187 patients admitted with stroke during 5 years in our stroke unit, we included 252 patients with independent functional status (modified Rankin scale, [mRS] ≤ 2) before the stroke. All patients underwent clinical examination, blood test, electrocardiography, brain imaging, and cerebrovascular ultrasound. Clinical outcome was assessed with the mRS and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) at discharge. We considered favorable outcome mRS 0-2 at discharge. RESULTS: Of 252 patients included, 55% were male, 150 (59.5%) patients belonged to G1 and 102 (40.5%) G2. We detected a significant increase of atrial fibrillation, bronchoaspiration, mortality, higher NIHSS at admission, and worse functional status at discharge in G2. No significant differences in other demographic, vascular risk factors, hospital stay, NIHSS at discharge or subtype of stroke were found. NIHSS at discharge was the only independent predictor of good functional status (odds ratio 0.4; 95% confidence interval, 0.3-0.6; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Oldest-old patients showed similar NIHSS at discharge than younger patients despite having higher neurological severity at admission. Our results support the hypothesis that oldest-old patients have good recovery potential, and should not be excluded from the stroke unit. The worse functional status detected at discharge in these patients could be attributed to others factors and not to neurological severity.
