Disposition to home or acute rehabilitation is associated with a favorable clinical outcome in the SENTIS trial.

OBJECTIVE To explore the impact of stroke severity and discharge disposition on 90-day outcomes in US patients enrolled in the SENTIS trial. METHODS SENTIS is a previously published prospective randomized controlled trial. We analyzed the demographic information, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scores (NIHSS) on day 4, discharge disposition and 90-day modified Rankin Score (mRS). Univariate models were constructed to determine the impact of discharge disposition on 90-day outcomes as well as the association of the day 4 NIHSS with outcomes. RESULTS A total of 292 patients with a mean age of 65 ± 14 years were analyzed. Discharge disposition was distributed as follows: 153 (52.1%) to an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF), 111 (38.0%) to home and 28 (9.6%) to a skilled nursing facility (SNF). Only 2 out of 28 patients (7.1%) discharged to a SNF achieved a 90-day mRS ≤ 2 compared with 60/153 (39.2%) in the IRF group (OR 8.39 (95% CI 1.92 to 36.64), p = 0.0047). This association persisted after adjusting for age and admission NIHSS. Only 3 of 50 patients (6%) with a NIHSS of ≥ 14 at day 4 achieved a mRS 0-2 at day 90. CONCLUSIONS This analysis shows that discharge to an IRF is associated with better neurological outcomes than discharge to a SNF. Additionally, patients with a NIHSS of ≥ 14 at day 4 are unlikely to achieve independent function.