Saarland University
Neurology
Professor Silke Walter is a consultant neurologist with additional training in pre-hospital emergency and neurological intensive care medicine at the Department of Neurology, Saarland University, Germany. She has a broad research portfolio with experience in clinical and basic science research. Her principal research interests are around stroke management and prehospital stroke treatment. She was involved in the implementation of the first Mobile Stroke Unit ambulance for pre-hospital stroke care in 2008 and has been actively working in this field since then. She is passionate about improving acute stroke care involving the different health care professionals participating in a patient’s journey and has worked as principle investigator in various clinical research projects. Silke Walter has published on topics relating to acute stroke management and treatment, treatment of Multiple Sclerosis and lymphocyte immunology. She holds editorial board positions with various journals, is involved in guideline writing groups for the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), works as vice-chair of the Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe (WISE) and the ESO clinical trial network committee and is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Australian Stroke Alliance Programme.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

Role of Prehospital CT-Ambulance

Session Type
Satellite Session
Date
29.10.2021, Friday
Session Time
17:15 - 18:45
Room
WSC TV
Lecture Time
17:45 - 18:00

Abstract

Abstract Body

Mobile Stroke Units for prehospital acute stroke diagnosis and treatment

Acute stroke can be considered a “major trauma” of the brain and excellent treatments are available to tackle brain damage. But, like in no other disease, management of acute stroke patients is a race against time.

All available therapies are most efficient when administered in the first hours after symptom onset. This is complicated by some of them, like mechanical thrombectomy or neurosurgery, only being performed at highly specialised centres. Moreover, identification of patients benefitting from these treatments needs advanced diagnostic assessments, which are not available at every hospital. All this turns acute stroke into a disease which is difficult to manage.

In this presentation, the concept of a Mobile Stroke Unit (MSU) ambulance shall be introduced. This concept was born in 2003 as a novel strategy, addressing the obstacles to timely patient management.

A MSU is an emergency ambulance equipped with computed tomography (CT) scanners, performing non-contrast brain scans and advanced imaging with CT angiography and perfusion. It also contains a laboratory unit for point-of-care blood analysis and a telemetry connection to the stroke centre.

These ambulances are staffed with highly specialised teams, who diagnose stroke and initiate intravenous thrombolysis at the emergency site, and triage to the required level of care. Evidence demonstrating the benefits on patient outcome when treated on a MSU is growing. Recent trial results emphasise the increase in treatment numbers and reduction of time to acute stroke treatment, leading to an improved clinical result.

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