Assessment of post discharge medication prescription among Lebanese patients with cerebral infarction: Results of a cross-sectional study

Objectives: The study objective was to investigate the degree of physician adherence with the international guidelines for post-stroke discharge medications among Lebanese hospitals. Patient and methods: This retrospective observational study was conducted in three Lebanese hospitals between January 2016 and December 2017. Results: Out of 200 patients with stroke, 64.7 % were males. The difference of systolic blood pressure from baseline, 2 h, and after 24 h showed significant decrease by mean value 25.18 +/- 33.45 (P< 0.001), and 6.44 +/- 22.11 (P = 0.019) respectively. Also diastolic blood pressure showed significant decrease between baseline and after 24 h by a mean value 12.17 +/- 13.63 (P value< 0.001). Concerning post discharge medications adherence, antithrombotic drugs showed the highest percentage (73 %) followed by antihypertensive and lipid lowering agents by comparable results (47.5 % and 40.7 % respectively). The physician adherence for the three medications together showed (30.4 %). Conclusion: Secondary prevention for critical diseases such as stroke appears to be inadequate in the study area.