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Organisation of services and clinical practice in acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: a UK survey
  1. Timothy Lavin1,
  2. Mark Holland2,
  3. Martin Punter1,3
  1. 1 Department of Neurology, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
  2. 2 Acute Medicine, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
  3. 3 University of Manchester Institute of Brain Behaviour and Mental Health, Manchester, Greater Manchester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Martin Punter, Department of Neurology, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Stott Lane, Salford, Greater Manchester, UK; martin.punter{at}manchester.ac.uk

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp-2017-316118

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    Introduction and aims

    Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is rare and can present in a variety of ways to a variety of services. Guidelines are, for the most part, by consensus without strong randomised controlled evidence. We hypothesised that there may be variations in practice for the care of patients with CVST at both a physician and organisation level across the UK.

    Methods

    We distributed a 21-question online survey (www.surveymonkey.com) for 2 months in autumn 2015 to members of the Association of British Neurologists, British Association of Stroke Physicians, the Society of Acute Medicine and the Stroke Sentinel National Audit Programme. We also asked the clinical directors at each neurosciences centre to send the survey link to medical staff members.

    Results

    There were 194 respondents from a wide geographic spread across the UK. Neurologists (45.8%) and stroke physicians (34.7%) constituted the majority of respondents.

    Organisation of services

    52.8% of respondents estimated that their units assessed fewer than five cases of CVST per year. The majority were cared for on a stroke (38.4%) or specialist neuroscience unit (41.8%), though 15.4% reported that patients were cared for on non-specialist general medical wards. 4.1% were not sure of the standard care setting. A majority of patients would have a neurologist (37.9%) or stroke physician (36.7%) as the named consultant, but only 55.2% reported patients would see either …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors MP and TL designed the survey, interpreted results and wrote initial drafts. MH helped with interpretation and further revisions.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.