Stroke rehabilitation pathways and procedures in Italy.
OBJECTIVE
Rehabilitation pathways and procedures after first stroke vary widely. We wanted to determine in what ways first stroke rehabilitation in Italian rehabilitation centers are similar and in line with the Italian Ministry of Health guidelines and international reports.


METHODS
Data from the study, Cerebral Ictus and Rehabilitation: Clinical Indicators and Outcomes, of the Italian Cooperative Research (ICR(2)), on 997 inpatients in 18 rehabilitation centers were analyzed and the rehabilitation procedures were compared. To do this, we compared the variables: onset admission interval, length of stay, intensity of treatment and discharge destination. Statistical analyses were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, the post hoc Mann-Whitney U test and the chi squared test.


RESULTS
Major differences among the centers were found for onset of admission, length of stay, intensity of treatment and discharge destination, whereas the clinical characteristics and the functional outcomes of the study population were similar.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results emphasize the importance of better integration between the acute treatment phase and the rehabilitation teams in reducing the onset admission interval of first acute stroke patients. To define optimal intensity of treatment and length of stay, randomized multicenter studies will be needed.
Franceschini
M
M
Rehabilitation Medicine Unit, University Hospital, Parma, Italy. franceschini@ao.pr.it
Aliboni
S
S
Rizzi
B
B
Agosti
M
M