On average, post-stroke complications can shorten a patient's life by about two years.
Researchers in South Korea contend that the greater the number of complications, the greater the loss of healthy years. About one-third of their patients suffered some type of complication within four weeks of their stroke.
Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the United States, and it's the third leading cause of death.
The report is published in the current online edition of Stroke.