Assessment of post discharge medication prescription among Lebanese patients with cerebral infarction: Results of a cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The study objective was to investigate the degree of physician adherence with the international guidelines for post-stroke discharge medications among Lebanese hospitals. PATIENT AND METHODS: This retrospective observational study was conducted in three Lebanese hospitals between January 2016 and December 2017. RESULTS: Out of 200 patients with stroke, 64.7 % were males. The difference of systolic blood pressure from baseline, 2 h, and after 24 h showed significant decrease by mean value 25.18 ± 33.45 (P < 0.001), and 6.44 ± 22.11 (P = 0.019) respectively. Also diastolic blood pressure showed significant decrease between baseline and after 24 h by a mean value 12.17 ± 13.63 (P value <0.001). Concerning post discharge medications adherence, antithrombotic drugs showed the highest percentage (73 %) followed by antihypertensive and lipid lowering agents by comparable results (47.5 % and 40.7 % respectively). The physician adherence for the three medications together showed (30.4 %). CONCLUSION: Secondary prevention for critical diseases such as stroke appears to be inadequate in the study area.