Accidents vasculaires cerebraux chez les patients de 15 a 45 ans dans le service de neurologie du chu campus de Lome.

Abstract

Introduction: According to W.H.O declaration, strokes and cardiovascular diseases will represent the main challenge of developing countries health care management systems in the incoming years. In subsaharian Africa strokes represent the third cause of mortality and the first cause of disability in neurological departments. W.H.O. also affirmed that the rate of death in the population of young adults (15-45 years old) is relatively high in developing countries: more than 30% versus 20% in developed countries. The objectives of our research is to study the frequency, the morbidity and the mortality of strokes among young adults patients hospitalized in neurological department of Lome, and to identify risk factors of strokes among this population in order to adopt strategies to decrease its impact. Patients and Methods: We did a transversal prospective study survey from January 1st, 1997 to December 31st, 2006 on 15-45 years old patients. Arguments resulted from physical examination and scanner investigations.
Results: Among the 3976 hospitalized patients, 1 309 suffered for strokes (32.9%) and 141 of them were young adults (15-45 years old) representing 10.8% of strokes cases and 3.5 % of hospitalizations.
Hemiplegia (51.1%), conscience disorders (48.2%) and language disorders (21.3%) were the main hospitalization motives. High blood pression was noticed in 102 cases (72.3%); 22.7% of patients presented a combination of risk factors. The whole mortality rate was 21.0% (18.8% for those presenting ischemic strokes versus 24.3% for the hemorrhagic strokes).
Conclusion: High blood pression represents the main risk factor of strokes in young adults population, requiring therefore to be tracked and justifying an early take-care.