ABSTRACT

Introduction Considerable emphasis continues to be placed on stroke prevention by state and national organizations, yet stroke incidence remains stable and is rising in some subgroups. Concurrently, thrombolytic treatment constitutes a major focus of many stroke programs and stroke center certifications, yet only a minority of patients access these treatments. As a result of these trends, 40% of stroke patients retain moderate functional impairments, and 15-30% exhibit severe disability in the weeks and months following their acute hospitalizations. Moreover, the number of community-dwelling stroke survivors exhibiting significant impairments that undermine independence is expected to rise exponentially.