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. 2023 Jan;8(1 Suppl):16-20.
doi: 10.1177/23969873221103943. Epub 2023 Feb 10.

Acute stroke management in Turkey: Current situation and future projection

Mehmet Akif Topcuoglu  1 , Atilla Ozcan Ozdemir  2
Affiliations

Acute stroke management in Turkey: Current situation and future projection

Mehmet Akif Topcuoglu et al. Eur Stroke J. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

In Turkey, the incidence of acute stroke is increasing, obviously with the contribution of the aging population. With the publication of "Directive on Health Services to be Provided to Patients with Acute Stroke" on July 18, 2019 and its entry into force in March 2021, an important period of catching up and updating has begun in the management of acute stroke patients in our country. During this period, 57 comprehensive stroke centers and 51 primary stroke centers were certified. These units have covered approximately 85% of the country's population. In addition, around 50 interventional neurologists were trained and became the directors of many of these centers. In the following 2 years, the "inme.org.tr campaign" was launched. This campaign, aimed at increasing the public's knowledge and awareness about stroke, continued unabated during the pandemic period. Now is the time to continue the efforts to ensure homogeneous quality metrics and to develop and continuously improve the established system.

Keywords: Acute stroke; stroke center; stroke unit; tPA; thrombectomy; thrombolytic; vascular neurologist.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Distribution of stroke centers and units. Distribution of stroke centers (top) and stroke units (bottom) in Turkey. According to the provincial population-based analysis, stroke units covered 60.3% of Turkey’s population (84.7 million as of 13.03.2022), and stroke centers 70.5%. The total population of the provinces without stroke units and centers is around 13 million, which corresponds to 15.4%.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
English version of one of the posters used in the campaign.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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