Study Examines Safety of Stroke Treatment in Children

By: MICHELE G. SULLIVAN, Family Practice News Digital Network -02/17/12.

Thrombolytic drugs appear to be as safe for children with acute ischemic stroke as they are for adults, based on an analysis of more than 9,000 patients in the Kids’ Inpatient Database.

Overall, 4% of the children in the database who got the clot-busting drugs had a brain hemorrhage, which was not significantly different than the 6% rate seen in adults with similar treatment, according to Dr. Amer Alshekhlee, a neurology fellow at the St. Louis University.

The Kids Inpatient Database contains data on 3 million pediatric hospital stays from 1997 through 2009. Dr. Alshekhlee identified 9,367 children who were treated in hospitals for acute ischemic stroke. Only 75 of those – less than 1% – received thrombolysis.

The rate was not unexpectedly low, Dr. Alshekhlee, said in an interview. In fact, he said, some reviews have suggested avoiding thrombolytic treatment for children altogether.

“Children are not getting the treatment because the treatment is not recommended for them. The rate of using thrombolysis is also low in adults, about 2%, but this rate in children is even lower.” Read Full Article