title: The prognostic factors that influence long-term survival in acute large cerebral infarction.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We retrospectively evaluated the prognostic factors that can influence long-term survival in patients who suffered acute large cerebral infarction.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between June 2003 and October 2008, a total of 178 patients were diagnosed with a large cerebral infarction, and, among them, 122 patients were alive one month after the onset of stroke. We investigated the multiple factors that might have influenced the life expectancies of these 122 patients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the patients was 70±13.4 years and the mean survival was 41.7±2.8 months. The mean survival of the poor functional outcome group (mRS≥4) was 33.9±3.3 months, whereas that of the good functional outcome group (mRS≤3) was 58.6±2.6 months (p value =0.000). The mean survival of the older patients (≥70 years) was 29.7±3.4 months, whereas that of the younger patients (<70 years) was much better as 58.9±3.2 months (p value=0.000). Involvement of ACA or PCA territory in MCA infarction is also a poor prognostic factor (p value=0.021). But, other factors that are also known as significant predictors of poor survival (male gender, hypertension, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus, a previous history of stroke, smoking, and dyslipidemia) did not significantly influence the mean survival time in the current study.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Age (older versus younger than 70 years old) and functional outcome at one month could be critical prognostic factors for survival after acute large cerebral infarction. Involvement of ACA or PCA territory is also an important poor prognostic factor in patients with MCA territorial infarction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Yun
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Chang Wan
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Hee-Joon
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Moon-Ku
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Hyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jae Seung
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Bang