Despite the stroke burden has globally increased, particularly due to high
rates of mortality and dependency in developing countries [1], advances are being
made. In the last two decades, we witnessed important successes in the management of
acute stroke patients, the principal of them being the development of stroke units,
aspirin for the early secondary prevention, thrombolysis for the reperfusion of ischemic
areas and decompressive craniectomy for malignant strokes.
This chapter will focus on the medical management of acute stroke, in particular on the
thrombolytic treatment.
Keywords: Acute stroke, Evidence, Intra-venous thrombolysis, Ischemic stroke,
Medical therapy, Neurovascular unit, Stroke unit, Systematic review, Treatment.
