Analysis results of a current study in the period between February 2017 and May 2019 show that in Berlin the so-called Mobile Stroke Units offered a better recovery process for stroke patients with immediate treatment after the event than if patients were treated in hospital after a delay. 749 patients treated in the Berlin „Stroke Einsatz Mobil“, or STEMO for short, were 26 percent less likely to develop severe neurological damage than 794 patients treated in hospital. After a stroke, in which a blood clot reduces the blood supply to the brain of the affected person and therefore does not receive enough oxygen, many patients sometimes suffer massive permanent disabilities that can even lead to death. Teams in three specialized ambulances in Berlin can work directly at the scene of the emergency, because the vehicles are equipped with a computer tomograph, a small laboratory and an emergency doctor specializing in neurology, who in an emergency can initiate prehospital thrombolysis, i.e. dissolving the blood clot with a specific preparation. 60 percent benefited from this treatment in STEMO, while only 48 percent received such treatment in the clinic, this is just one result of the analysis. The German Stroke Society (DSG) therefore recommends Mobile Stroke Units without reservation. These could represent a real added value, especially in suburban and rural areas, because after a stroke every minute is valuable. The deputy hospital director of the neurology department at Berlin’s Charité Universitätsmedizin, study author and DSG expert, Prof. Dr. med. Heinrich Audebert, also welcomes the use of mobile emergency vehicles, not only in the capital, because those affected have a better chance of not sustaining any permanent damage.
