Neurological acute stroke care: the role of European neurology

In 1995 the EFNS has made stroke treatment and prevention a major policy issue and established a Task Force to develop guidelines for acute neurological stroke care for use by neurologists throughout Europe and to be modified according to local and national requirements. This Task Force report supplements recommendations and treatment guidelines previously published. It focuses on the need of adapting neurological hospital services to immediate stroke care and sets up lines of argumentation and organisational recommendations compiled on various levels of evidence. Due to the increase of aging populations across Europe the socioeconomic and health burden of stroke will increase in many countries within the next decades. In addition, acute stroke mortality differs greatly among European countries being the highest in many countries of Eastern Europe and lowest in many of the Western nations. This implies that management of acute stroke varies in intensity and quality and a uniform improvement of care can be achieved in many countries by involving more neurologists. The viability of ischemic brain tissue may extend up to 18 or even 24 hours but experimental and human stroke research s