• Álvaro Soto V, Gladys Morales I, Gonzalo Echeverría V, María Belén Colinas G, Pedro Canales O, and Daniela Contreras B.
• Departamento de Especialidades Médicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 2019 Sep 1; 147 (9): 1154-1158.

BackgroundStroke is a time-dependent emergency. Most patients with acute ischemic stroke are excluded from reperfusion therapies due to late consultation.AimsTo estimate the arrival times of patients with stroke to the Emergency Room (ER) of a public hospital. To identify factors associated with early consultation.Material And MethodsA convenience sample, 583 patients aged 71 ± 13 years (55% males) consulting for stroke at an emergency room was analyzed in terms of delay between onset of symptoms and arrival to the ER, demographics and etiology of stroke.ResultsThe admission diagnoses were ischemic stroke in 76%, intracerebral hemorrhage in 12%, transient ischemic attack in 9% and subarachnoid hemorrhage in 3%. The median time of arrival was 8 hours and 11 minutes after the onset of symptoms. Nineteen percent of consultations for ischemic stroke occurred within 3 hours of symptom onset, and 38% within 6 hours. In the logistic regression analysis, having an address near the hospital and the severity of stroke were associated with early consultation with a combined odds ratio of 5.97 (95% confidence intervals 3.23-11.04).ConclusionsThere were significant differences in the arrival times of patients with stroke. Only a low proportion of patients with ischemic stroke consulted within the window for reperfusion therapies. Severe strokes and living near the hospital were associated with early consultation.

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