Deans' stroke musings: Fall risk six weeks from onset of stroke and the ability of the Prediction of Falls in Rehabilitation Settings Tool and motor function to predict falls

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Fall risk six weeks from onset of stroke and the ability of the Prediction of Falls in Rehabilitation Settings Tool and motor function to predict falls

Once again they are not using an objective prediction tool, Maybe dead brain vs. penumbra damage will help you tell who can easily get better. Or maybe you actually want them to fall so they can recognize the warning signs of an impending fall. Like this:

Motivation through Inclusion of Failure in Stroke Rehabilitation

New tool here:

http://cre.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/08/0269215512464703.abstract

Objective: To investigate whether the Prediction of Falls in Rehabilitation Settings Tool (Predict FIRST) and motor function could be used to identify people at risk of falling during the first six weeks after stroke, and to compare the risk of falling according to Predict FIRST with real falls frequency.

Design: A longitudinal, prospective study.

Patients: Sixty-eight people newly diagnosed with stroke admitted to an acute stroke unit.

Methods: The participants underwent an assessment of motor ability (Modified Motor Assessment Scale according to Uppsala University Hospital version 99 (M-MAS UAS-99)) and falls risk (Predict FIRST) on the first to fourth day at the acute stroke unit. Falls occurring in the acute stroke unit were recorded and falls occurring after discharge were reported by telephone follow-up. The prediction of falls was analysed with binary logistic regression.

Results: Fourteen of the patients (21%) fell at least once during the first six weeks after stroke. The strongest significant predictor for falls was a high score on Predict FIRST (odds ratio 5.21, confidence interval (CI) 1.10–24.78) followed by M-MAS UAS-99 parts C–E (odds ratio 0.65, CI 0.44–0.95). Predict FIRST underestimated the risk of falling as the median fall risk was 9% according to Predict FIRST.

Conclusion: Although Predict FIRST has the ability to predict falls in people with recent onset of stroke, there is some underestimation of fall risk.