Tuesday, September 19
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Over the past decade, there have been significant advances in acute ischemic stroke care with the proven effectiveness of reperfusion therapies for large vessel occlusion (LVO). Due to the importance of time to treatment with intravenous thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy, optimizing stroke systems of care is critical to achieving good neurological outcomes.
EMS providers have an important role in the spectrum of stroke care. Pre-hospital management of acute stroke patients involves 1) recognition of signs/symptoms, 2) assessment with a validated LVO scale, 3) destination triage to the most appropriate stroke center, and 4) communicating pertinent stroke alert information to the receiving facility. Each of these steps requires training and education of frontline paramedics. For accountability, EMS leaders should also understand the quality of care delivered at stroke centers through benchmark metrics and outcomes data.
In this workshop organized by the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN), renowned stroke experts will give an overview of the latest advances in acute stroke care, provide case-based training of validated LVO scales, and present examples of EMS stroke triage protocols using recently published destination guidelines. Best practices for EMS integration with local stroke centers will be highlighted as part of a panel discussion.