Reasons for exclusion of patients recruited at Centers 1, 2, and 3.
USN, amputations, cognitive impairments, deaths, aphasia, visual disturbances
BIT: Behavioral Inattention Test.After screening, 87 of 173 patients (50.3%) were excluded for clinical reasons, and 21.4% (37 patients) were excluded for socioeconomic reasons. The main clinical reasons for exclusion were cognitive impairments (n=21/87, 24.1%), presence of intracranial stent or craniectomy surgery (n=18/87, 20.7%), spontaneous improvement of USN between hospital discharge and screening (n=15/87, 17.2%), and clinical instability (n=11/87, 12.6%). Other less frequent factors were global aphasia, visual disturbances, amputations, and deaths after hospital discharge.Among the socioeconomic factors, the most common reasons were difficulty with transportation to the hospital (n=16/37; 43.3%) and difficulty establishing phone contact with the patient and caregiver (n=9/37; 24.3%). In addition, there was a lack of interest in participating in the study (n=6/37; 16.2%) and failure to attend scheduled evaluations (n=6/37; 16.2%).After inclusion in the protocol, four patients were excluded (1 due to difficulty in adhering to treatment, 1 due to clinical instability, and 2 due to spontaneous improvement of USN).