Improving the management of post-stroke spasticity: Time for ACTION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/20030711-1000004Abstract
Objective: To identify barriers to appropriate referral and treatment for patients with spasticity and present solutions that address these in a pragmatic way. Methods: Using the findings of interviews conducted with UK healthcare professionals on the management of post-stroke spasticity, a consensus meeting was held involving 7 UK spasticity experts. The panel identified barriers to timely identification and referral of patients in the acute and post-acute care settings. Barriers were prioritized using a consensus framework based on impact and resolvability and a series of final recommendations were agreed. Results: High-priority barriers broadly related to: insufficient awareness of spasticity symptoms and benefits of treatment, limited access to spasticity services and lack of standardized pathways for post-stroke spasticity identification. Potential solutions included the appointment of an experienced member of the acute team to gain expertise in spasticity identification, patient education of spasticity symptoms and a greater utilization of training resources for healthcare professionals. Conclusion: To address the barriers identified, we provide a series of consensus recommendations. As a key recommendation, we propose a set of indicators for the identification of stroke patients requiring specialist assessment and the use of the associated acronym ?ACTION?.Downloads
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Copyright (c) 2018 Gerry Christofi, Stephen Ashford, Jonathan Birns, Catherine Dalton, Lynsay Duke, Claire Madsen, Sohail Salam
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All articles in JRM-CC are Open Access and, unless otherwise specified, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license permits sharing, adapting, and using the material for any purpose, including commercial use, with the condition of providing full attribution to the original publication.