International study measures costs associated with stroke treatment time

The study reveals that a delay of one hour before intervening entails, for the patient, a loss equivalent to 9 months of full quality of life and to 14 000 $ for the company. The cost for two hours late: two years of full quality of life and a bill of $ 26,000.

"It's often said that a minute of blockage of an artery in the brain kills 1.9 million neurons a minute. So, we can think that one hour of ischemia, blockage of an artery, it kills several million neurons. And that translates into physical and cognitive impairments, "says Dr. Alexandre Y. Poppe, a neurologist at the CHUM.

In Canada, it takes an average of two hours to transport a patient to a health center, evaluate it, and administer a medical imaging test.

In specialized centers, thrombectomy is then performed, if necessary. The procedure removes the clot that blocks the artery, and the blood can then circulate again. For cases that are treated in specialized centers, there is a 50% decrease in mortality.

Is it possible to do even better?

"In Quebec, there are only four centers offering this special treatment, two in Montreal, one in Quebec and one in Sherbrooke. So, there are all the issues of being able to bring patients quickly by ambulance to the right place. "

In more remote areas, videoconferencing is an interesting option.

"We have set up, among other things, tele-strokes, where even if we do not have access to a large center or a neurologist or all the specialized equipment, we can, from a distance, with a neurologist, make a first diagnosis, a first examination and decide what to do, among other things to give the right drug, the right intervention quickly, "says Andréane Tardif of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Today, 80% of Canadians survive their stroke, but more than half still have a long-term disability.

With information from Normand Grondin