Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management
The Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management are evolving into living guidelines, updated as new evidence emerges in accordance with the 2011 NHMRC Standard for clinical practice guidelines. They supersede the Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management 2017.
Review of the Clinical Guidelines uses an internationally recognised approach known as GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation), and an innovative guideline development and publishing platform, MAGICapp (Making Grade the Irresistible Choice).
How to use the guidelines
When you click on a guideline chapter you will be taken to the magicapp.org website. You may be asked to accept terms and conditions, or load the latest version. If so, please agree and continue to the guidelines.
To save or print: Please see How to PDF each chapter (PDF 308 KB). Please note that the guidelines are a living document, so check back regularly to ensure you have the most up-to-date version.
Updates: For recent changes and drafts for consultation, please see the list of Living guidelines updates.
To see a version history of changes to each topic, please click the exclamation icon 
If you have any questions, please contact guidelines@strokefoundation.org.au
Contents
The Clinical Guidelines cover the whole continuum of stroke care, across 8 chapters.
Chapter 1: Pre-hospital care
Chapter 2: Early assessment and diagnosis
- Clinical questions
- Early assessment and diagnosis - overview
- Transient ischaemic attack
- Rapid assessment in the emergency department
- Investigations
- Imaging
- Cardiac investigations
Chapter 3: Acute medical and surgical management
- Clinical questions
- Acute medical and surgical management - overview
- Stroke unit care
- Assessment for rehabilitation
- Palliative care
- Reperfusion therapy
- Thrombolysis
- Neurointervention
- Dysphagia
- Antithrombotic therapy
- Acute blood pressure lowering therapy
- Surgery for ischaemic stroke and management of cerebral oedema
- Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) management
- Medical interventions
- Surgical interventions
- Oxygen therapy
- Neuroprotection
- Glycaemic therapy
- Pyrexia management
Chapter 4: Secondary prevention
- Clinical questions
- Secondary prevention - overview
- Lifestyle modification
- Smoking
- Diet
- Physical activity
- Obesity
- Alcohol
- Adherence to pharmacotherapy
- Blood pressure lowering therapy
- Antiplatelet therapy
- Anticoagulant therapy
- Cholesterol lowering therapy
- Carotid surgery
- Cervical artery dissection
- Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis
- Diabetes management
- Patent foramen ovale management
- Hormone replacement therapy
- Oral contraception
Chapter 5: Rehabilitation
- Clinical questions
- Rehabilitation - overview
- Early supported discharge services
- Home-based rehabilitation
- Goal setting
- Early mobilisation
- Sensorimotor impairment
- Weakness
- Loss of sensation
- Vision
- Physical activity
- Amount of rehabilitation
- Cardiorespiratory fitness
- Sitting
- Standing up
- Standing balance
- Walking
- Upper limb activity
- Activities of daily living
- Communication
- Assessment of communication deficits
- Aphasia
- Dysarthria
- Apraxia of speech
- Cognitive communication disorder in right hemisphere stroke
- Cognition and perception
- Assessment of cognition
- Executive function
- Attention and concentration
- Memory
- Perception
- Limb apraxia
- Neglect
Chapter 6: Managing complications
- Clinical questions
- Managing complications - overview
- Nutrition and hydration
- Early hydration
- Early feeding
- Oral hygiene
- Spasticity
- Contracture
- Subluxation
- Shoulder pain
- Swelling of the extremities
- Fatigue
- Incontinence
- Urinary incontinence
- Faecal incontinence
- Mood disturbance
- Mood assessment
- Treatment for emotional distress
- Prevention of depression
- Treatment for depression
- Treatment for anxiety
- Deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism
- Falls
Chapter 7: Discharge planning and transfer of care
- Clinical questions
- Discharge planning and transfer of care - overview
- Information and education
- Discharge care plans
- Patient and carer needs
- Home assessment
- Carer training
Chapter 8: Community participation and long-term care
- Clinical questions
- Community participation and long-term care - overview
- Self-management
- Driving
- Community mobility and outdoor travel
- Leisure
- Return to work
- Sexuality
- Support
- Peer support
- Carer support
Short summaries
Summary of Clinical Guidelines recommendations (2017) [PDF 543 KB]
Summary of Clinical Guidelines recommendations (2010 vs 2017) [PDF 1.04 MB]
Healthcare professional 2-page summary (2017) [PDF]
Plain English summary for consumers (2017) [PDF]
Discipline-specific summaries
Emergency department (2017) [PDF 790 KB]
General practitioners (2017) [PDF 858 KB]
Occupational therapy (2017) [PDF 650 KB]
Physiotherapy (2017) [PDF 755 KB]
Psychology (2017) [PDF 631 KB]
Social work (2017) [PDF 603 KB]
Speech pathology (2017) [PDF 645 KB]
Supporting documents
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people [PDF]
Evidence gaps [PDF]
Technical report [PDF]
Administrative report [PDF]
Dissemination and implementation report [PDF]
Public consultation submissions summary [PDF]
Working Group membership and terms of reference [PDF]
Working Group conflicts of interest [PDF]
Endorsing organisations [PDF]
Implementation tools
In this video, Co-chair of the Guidelines Content Working Group, Assoc. Prof. Coralie English, explains the guidelines for stroke rehabilitation:
Suggested citation
Stroke Foundation (2019). Clinical Guidelines for Stroke Management. Melbourne Australia.
© No part of this publication can be reproduced by any process without permission from the Stroke Foundation. August 2019.
