Clinical severity and functionality of acute stroke patients attended at the physiotherapy public services of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil

This article investigates the severity and functional independence of hemiplegics patients' post-acute stroke by means of a multidisciplinary clinical staff. It is a descriptive study composed by 40 hemiplegics attended at the four largest physiotherapy public services in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte State. The methods used were an evaluation form, Functional Independence Measure and NIHSS. The results showed a sample predominantly female (55%), stroke ischemic (90%), right brain hemisphere (52.5%) and Hypertension Risk Factor (90%). The mean of clinical severity and functional independence was 13.32+/-4.7 and 54.6+/-17.15 respectively. There was no significant difference between the mean of functionality about stroke side (pvalue = 0.66). There is a significant relation between clinical severity and functional independence (r = -0.45 pvalue=0.003). It can be concluded that the level of clinical severity and functional dependence of stroke patients that make use of public physiotherapy services is significant and show the necessity, beyond the classic treatment, to be encouraged preventive educational actions to improve knowledge of this population.