Oral dietary intake level in thrombolysed and non-thrombolysed patients after ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND: Dysphagia can be a stroke sequelae and may impact patient prognosis. Thrombolytic therapy has been used as a treatment of choice which aims to reduce sequelae.

OBJECTIVE: Assess the ability of dietary intake orally in subjects undergoing thrombolytic therapy and compare it with non-thrombolytic subjects post-ischemic stroke.

METHODS: Documentary cross-sectional study with 87 post-ischemic stroke patients. Subjects were divided as to the type of neurological intervention: group 1 consisted of subjects undergoing brain reperfusion therapy or thrombolysis and group 2 for those undergoing no such therapy or non-thrombolysed. Data was obtained from the subjects relative to age, sex, level of oral dietary intake at the beginning of hospitalization and at discharge, length of hospital stay, comorbidities and site of neurological lesion.

RESULTS: Group 1 was composed of 39 patients while 48 patients were in group 2. Both groups consisted of subjects with similar mean age and balanced gender distribution. Both groups presented hypertension as the most frequent comorbidity. The individuals in group 1 demonstrated improvement of oral dietary intake (p = 0.002) and shorter hospital stay (p = 0.007) when compared with group 2.

CONCLUSION: There was greater improvement of oral dietary intake and shorter hospital stay for patients undergoing thrombolytic therapy.