Precious

PREvention of Complications to Improve OUtcome in elderly patients with acute Stroke

Stroke is the world’s second largest cause of death and the third cause of long-term disability.

The annual costs for stroke care in Europe are currently estimated at € 64.1 billion. Elderly patients have a high risk of complications after stroke, such as infections or fever. These complications are strongly associated with a higher risk of death or dependency. Currently, they are treated only after their occurrence.

The PRECIOUS project aimed to find out whether a pharmacological strategy to prevent these complications can reduce the risk of death or long-term disability. PRECIOUS recruited 1492 patients in 68 hospitals to the study. Patients aged 66 years or older were randomised to a strategy to prevent complications in the first four days of their hospitalisation, or to standard care. This simple and generally available treatment strategy has the potential to lead to an annual reduction of over 25,000 elderly Europeans being dead or dependent as a result of stroke, at very low costs.

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