Healthcare | Wednesday 13 May, 2015 8:18 am |

Under the Patronage of the Dean, the Faculty of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University in collaboration with King Abdulaziz University Hospital recently organized the first Neurovascular Day in Jeddah with the support of Boehringer Ingelheim. The medical meeting brought together experts from different institutions within KSA in order to discuss topics such as important anatomy in stroke, the update in stroke management, risk factor modification, and the approach to acute stroke in the Emergency Room (ER). The global/local stroke burden and the importance of establishing specialized stroke units were also topics covered during the medical meeting.

As part of Boehringer Ingelheim‘s new regional MENA Stroke initiative “Making every second count, toward stroke recovery”, a collaboration was started with regional stroke specialists and neurologists in implementing a stroke program to facilitate acute care across the GCC, Egypt and Lebanon.

The program highlights the importance of stroke units, which aim to provide superior technology with multidisciplinary teams that exclusively manage stroke patients in a ward. There is clear evidence available that having such centers decreases the mortality rates and the complications and improves outcomes of stroke. Furthermore, the accreditation from the German Stroke Society aims to cement validate the collaboration with all the MENA countries and thus facilitating each country to have a stroke center of excellence.
In the GCC, the annual incidence of stroke ranged from 27.6 to 57 per 100 000 with ischemic stroke being the most common subtype.3 In Saudi Arabia it is estimated to be 186/ 100000 population,2 and it is the cause of 5,000 deaths a year.3 There are between 50-100 cases of stroke a day in Saudi Arabia, which is equivalent to around one case every fifteen minutes.3
In Saudi Arabia, within an approximately population of 24 million, a conservative, an indirect estimate from the existing literature indicates that at least 20 000 new strokes, 4000 deaths and 8000 disabilities occur each year across the country.4
Dr. Omar Ayoub, Assistant Professor and Consultant of Neurology, Stroke and Neurological care at King Abdulaziz University Hospital commented, “We are excited to build our stroke unit in King Abdel Aziz University hospital and to have the first stroke unit in Jeddah. We appreciate the partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim with the MENA Stroke initiative in order to address stroke, particularly its management to provide better care to our patients in KSA. Establishing the stroke units in the hospitals is a crucial step in accomplishing this goal, and we hope that the other hospitals across the country will collaborate with us in order to expand our reach.”

Mohamed Bayoumy, Head of KSA at Boehringer Ingelheim commented, “Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to supporting doctors, physicians, nurses, and other staff and providing them with the technical knowhow of stroke unit protocol, offering materials to hone skill-sets of the medical staff and medical knowledge and updates when needed. As part of our regional initiative, a dedicated stroke unit in hospitals, with a committed medical setting and physicians, specialized nurses, and other ancillary personnel with ample training and experience in stroke management can further reduce the door to needle.”

In the future, Boehringer Ingelheim will continue to focus on stroke in Saudi Arabia through its regional MENA Stroke initiative “Making every second count, toward stroke recovery”, and supporting hospitals in establishing stroke units in order to improve the care given to the patients affected by this health problem.