INTRODUCTION Stroke is among the three main causes of years of life lost in Brazil. It is a public health problem with socioeconomic impact both for the health system and for the society. Despite the importance of stroke in Brazilian public health, data on the cost of the disease in Brazil are scarce.

OBJECTIVES To estimate, from the perspective of the society, the direct and indirect costs related to the stroke on the length of stay in one hospital in Brazil.

METHODS A literature review was performed in Medline (via Pubmed), CRD Database, Embase, Tripdatabase, LILACS, Scielo and BVS to identify previously available data about direct costs of stroke in Brazil. The data were extracted, and then the costs were updated according to the IPCA and the VCMH, inflation indexes. Indirect costs related to the disease on the length of stay in hospital were also estimated.

RESULTS The national average of hospital care costs for hemorrhagic stroke was around R$ 415 million and for ischemic stroke around R$ 1.1 billion. When considering indexation by VCMH, these costs would reach R$ 608 million and R$ 1.6 billion, respectively - which represents a 32% increase. The daily cost with loss of productivity for the Brazilian population during hospitalization was estimated at R$ 861 thousand for the hemorrhagic stroke and R$ 6,6 million for the ischemic stroke.

CONCLUSIONS The present study demonstrated that the occurrence of stroke leads to high economic losses for the country. The results indicate the need to implement public policies focused on reducing stroke cases in Brazil, not only to generate better allocation and distribution of resources in the health system, but also to save with productivity losses