In patients with mild stroke treated at hospitals using the Get With the Guidelines—Stroke registry, complication rates were low and typically mild, with symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage in fewer than 2% of patients, according to a review of 5,910 patients with a Health Stroke Scale of 5 or less.
Researchers identified patients who arrived at the hospital within 4.5 hours of symptom onset and were treated with IV recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA). They found the following rates:
• mortality: 1.3%.
• symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage: 1.8%
• serious systemic hemorrhage: 0.3%
• other serious complication: 1.8%
• complications of undetermined cause: 2.4%
At discharge, 30% of patients could not walk independently, 29% could not go directly home, and 73% had a length of stay 3 days or longer.
Citation: Romano JG, Smith EE, Liang L, et al. Outcomes in mild acute ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis: a retrospective analysis of the Get With the Guidelines — Stroke registry. JAMA Neurol. 2015;72(4):423-431. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2014.4354.