Everything You Need To Know About Stroke Treatment

Kinds of strokes

Ischemia and hemorrhage are the two primary kinds of strokes.

Ischemic stroke: Ischemia occurs when cells experience insufficient blood flow to provide them with oxygen. This typically occurs as a result of anything obstructing the blood arteries in your brain, stopping the flow of blood. The majority of strokes, or 80% of all strokes, are ischemic strokes.

Ischemic strokes often occur in one of the methods listed below:

• Developing a blood clot in your brain (thrombosis).
• A piece of a blood clot that developed in another part of your body breaks off and travels through your blood arteries before being lodged in your brain (embolism).
• Small vessel blockage, can result from long-term untreated high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), or high blood sugar (Type 2 diabetes).
• Unknown causes (these are so-called cryptogenic strokes; "cryptogenic" is a term that implies "hidden origin").

Hemorrhagic stroke: Hemorrhagic strokes result in bleeding inside or outside of the brain. One of two things can cause this:

• Internal bleeding in the brain (intracerebral). It takes place when a blood artery within the brain bursts or rips, resulting in bleeding that increases pressure on the nearby brain tissue.
• Subarachnoid space bleeding (the space between your brain and its outer covering). Your brain is encircled by the arachnoid membrane, a thin layer of tissue with a pattern like a spider web. The subarachnoid space (the prefix "sub" means "under") exists between it and your brain. A subarachnoid hemorrhage, or bleeding into the subarachnoid space, can result from injury to blood arteries that flow through the arachnoid membrane, placing pressure on the brain tissue below.

Treatment

A patient will receive emergency stroke treatment once they are under the care of a medical team and the diagnosis has been performed. This treatment may include breathing assistance and intravenous fluids, drugs to dissolve blood clots, drugs and therapies to reduce brain swelling and protect the brain, and brain surgery to remove clots, lower pressure, or treat bleeds.

Treatments may occasionally be provided prior to a stroke, for example, to individuals with diseases that increase their risk of having a stroke. Treatments for preventing strokes include, among other things, blood-thinning and cholesterol-lowering drugs, as well as surgical procedures like carotid endarterectomy to help normalize blood flow and left atrial appendage closure to stop clots in people with atrial fibrillation.

The many elements that affect stroke treatment are numerous. The type of stroke a person gets is the most important factor in deciding on a course of treatment.

Ischemic: The main goal in treating ischemic strokes is to re-establish blood flow to the afflicted parts of the brain. There are situations when irreversible harm can be avoided or at least the severity of a stroke can be reduced if this occurs quickly enough.

Hemorrhagic: The course of treatment for hemorrhagic strokes varies on the extent and location of the bleeding. Because doing so will lessen the amount of bleeding and prevent it from growing worse, lowering blood pressure is frequently the main goal. Enhancing clotting is another option for therapy to halt the bleeding. Sometimes surgery is required to relieve the pressure that accumulated blood puts on your brain.

Thrombolytic drugs

Within the first three hours following the onset of stroke symptoms, thrombolytic medications are a possibility. These drugs break apart clots that have already formed.

Mechanical thrombectomy

A catheterization method called mechanical thrombectomy may be used in some situations, particularly when thrombolytic medications are not an option. In this operation, a catheter-like device is inserted into a significant blood artery and guided up to the brain clot. Once there, a device on the catheter's tip can be used to remove the clot.

Surgery

Surgery may be required in some circumstances to release pressure on your brain. This is especially true for subarachnoid hemorrhages, which are located on your brain's outer surface and are therefore simpler to access.