MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF STROKE

It is the elderly who carry the burden of stroke. Whilst 130,000 peopl e suffer a stroke in the UK every year, nearly three quarters of these cases occur over the age of 65 and nearly half occur over the age of 75.(1) As the proportion of elderly in the population continues to gro w, inevitably this burden will increase. With Scotland probably experi encing the highest stroke incidence in the UK and stroke already accou nting for 5.5% of fetal hospital costs,(2) challenges clearly lie ahea d for the health service and Scottish society as a whole. The extent t o which we are able to meet this challenge is becoming clearer. Thus f ar, therapeutic advance has been rather ''low-tech'', with organisatio n of services and the appropriate use of existing interventions showin g modest and, just occasionally, dramatic benefits. In contrast, the h igh hopes raised by many ''high-tech'' solutions have largely been das hed or remain promising but unproven.