Where to now? AVERT answered an important question, but raised many more

The AVERT trial was a Phase 3 randomised trial with over 2100 subjects designed to end the controversy about the early mobilisation of stroke patients. It sounds intuitive doesn’t it, if a patient has a stroke get them up and moving as soon as possible get the blood flowing and consequently the patient healing faster.

But this wasn’t the case, and the stroke community, especially the rehab and recovery arm were collectively shocked by the results which indicated that early mobilization may actually cause harm.  

Undoubtedly this ultimately successful trial answered an important clinical question, opening the door for more large scale rehab and recovery trials.

Now the priority questions are: (1) What is the optimal dose in minutes of VEM in duration and frequency? (2) How intense should the exertion be? (3) How should we design trials that compare different specified doses for different subgroups? 

I’m Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins Managing Editor of the International Journal of Stroke and I spoke to Mark Bayley author of Where to now? AVERT answered an important question, but raised many more recently published in the International Journal of Stroke.