What is Stroke?

Stroke is a medical emergency. The sooner you get treatment, the better your chances of survival and recovery.

Stroke can happen to anyone. It’s the fifth leading cause of death in the United States and a leading cause of long-term disability.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to part of the brain stops because of a blockage or an interruption in the blood supply. Without oxygen, brain cells begin to die. If blood flow is restored quickly enough, some brain cells will survive. But if blood flow resumes too late, significant damage can occur, even death.

Causes of Stroke

Stroke is caused by a blockage of the blood vessels that supply the brain. The blockage may be in the arteries that carry oxygen-rich blood to the brain or in the veins that drain blood from the brain.

Some risk factors for stroke include:

• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• High cholesterol
• Smoking cigarettes
• Diabetes mellitus (sugar diabetes)
• Atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat
• Other heart conditions, such as heart valve problems or congenital heart disease (a heart defect you are born with)

Why time is really valuable for people have stroke?

Time is the only thing that inevitable. Life is precious, and time should not be wasted. People have a lot of things to do with their time, but they should make use of their time properly because time is limited. We cannot waste our time because we will regret it later if we do so. All of us have our own schedule and we need to follow them closely so that we will be able to complete all of our tasks on time.

People who have stroke often have trouble with their speech and language after stroke. They may also have difficulty walking, moving around, or performing other daily activities independently (American Heart Association). A person who has experienced a stroke will usually recover slowly over weeks or months or longer depending on the severity of the stroke (Kaspar).

Strokes occur when blood flow to a part of your brain stops or becomes blocked for some reason (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke). The most common type of stroke is called an ischemic stroke, which happens when blood clots from narrowed arteries block the blood flow to the brain (Kaspar). This type of stroke accounts for about 87% of all strokes in.

Types of Strokes and Treatment Options

There are two main types of stroke:

Ischemic strokes are caused by a blood clot (thrombosis) forming in an artery that supplies oxygenated blood to the brain; these blockages can be caused by atherosclerosis (buildup of plaque inside your arteries), atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), heart valve disease, or other structural abnormalities in your heart’s valves or wall. Ischemic strokes account for about 87 percent of all strokes.

Hemorrhagic strokes are caused by bleeding into the brain’s tissue itself; they may occur as a result of trauma to the head, high blood pressure in older adults, diabetes, or weakened blood vessels in the brain due to aging). Hemorrhagic strokes account for about 13 percent.

The treatment options for strokes.

Thrombolysis

A thrombus is a blood clot formed inside a blood vessel. It may block blood flow to the brain and cause a stroke. A chemical called a clot-busting medicine can be injected into your bloodstream to help clear the clots from your arteries. This is called thrombolysis. The medicine dissolves the clot, allowing your artery to open up and blood flow to return to the brain.

If you have symptoms of stroke, call 911 immediately. Even if it’s been only a few minutes since you first noticed symptoms, you can still receive treatment that may help prevent further damage from occurring or reduce the effects of a stroke if it’s already happened.

Mechanical Thrombectomy

Mechanical Thrombectomy is a procedure that uses a device called a stent retriever to remove blood clots from the brain. The stent retriever is inserted through an opening in the skull and used to pull the clot out of the brain.

Mechanical thrombectomy is most often used for large strokes, especially if they are caused by a blood clot in the carotid artery or internal carotid artery (ICA). It’s also used for smaller strokes if there’s no bleeding on the brain or swelling that would make surgery too risky.

In some cases, the patient needs surgery to remove a piece of bone blocking an artery. In this case, we will also remove any clot that has formed inside the artery. The clot may be too large to pass through the stent retriever alone, so we also use other techniques such as laser therapy or balloon angioplasty to break up or compress it before removing it with the stent retriever.

Stroke Symptoms

Stroke symptoms vary by the type of stroke you have. The most common stroke symptom is sudden weakness or paralysis of the face, arm or leg. This can be accompanied by slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, confusion and vision problems.

Other symptoms of a stroke include:

• A sudden and severe headache that’s different from your usual headaches
• Nausea and vomiting
• Dizziness or vertigo, loss of balance or unsteadiness on your feet
• Confusion, trouble understanding simple statements, disorientation to time and place; difficulty speaking (whether it’s aphasia)
• Double vision in one or both eyes (diplopia) – this is often caused by a problem with the nerves controlling one eye that can be seen when looking at an object straight ahead with both eyes closed
• Inability to move one side of the body (hemiparesis or hemiplegia) – this is often caused by damage to the brain’s motor cortex that controls voluntary movements on one side of your body; it may also affect other areas such as speech or swallowing.