What happens in the hospital in case of a stroke?
Once the patient arrives at the hospital, a series of examinations and therapies are initiated. This procedure is now highly standardized, and some hospitals have set up special departments for handling strokes, so-called stroke units. After a thorough neurological examination has taken place, imaging is immediately sought to visualize a possible stroke and to distinguish whether it is a pure vascular occlusion or a major bleeding, which may present itself in an identical manner. The method of choice here is computed tomography of the skull (cCT).
Prepare pre-existing conditions and medication list
When the emergency doctor arrives, it is always useful to have a list of the medication taken and the patient’s previous illnesses. On the one hand, these serve to estimate the risk of a stroke or bleeding, but they are also of decisive importance, especially when planning the therapy. For example, certain blood coagulation disorders are a clear contraindication to the administration of medication to dissolve a blood clot, as the risk of bleeding would be too high. In addition, information on possible pre-existing conditions helps to facilitate interpretation of the images and to assess the risk of complications.
