1 in 6 people worldwide will have a stroke in their lifetime
What is a Stroke or Brain Attack?
A stroke, or brain attack, sometimes referred to as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), is the rapid loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. A stroke is a medical emergency and can cause permanent neurological damage and death.
Risk factors for stroke
- Old Age
- Diabetes
- High Cholesterol
- Tobacco Smoking
- High Blood Pressure is the Most Important Modifiable Risk Factor of Stroke. It is the 2nd Leading Cause of Death Worldwide.
Types of Stroke
- A cerebral hemorrhage (also spelled haemorrhage) is a type of stroke that occurs within the brain tissue rather than outside of it.
- Extra-axial hemorrhage, such as epidural, subdural, and subarachnoid hematomas, which all occur within the skull but outside of the brain tissue.
Common symptoms
- A severe headache followed by vomiting
- Some patients may also go into a coma before the bleed is noticed
Causes
- Intracerebral bleeds are the second most common cause of stroke, accounting for 30–60% of hospital admissions for stroke.
- High blood pressure raises the risks of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage by two to six times.
- More common in adults than in children, extra-axial bleeds are usually due to penetrating head trauma, but can also be due to depressed skull fractures.
- Amyloid angiopathy is a not uncommon cause of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients over the age of 55.
Treatment
Rapid CT scan and other diagnostic measures are used to determine proper treatment, which may include both medication and surgery.
Case study
Rakesh Sharma (name changed) of 45 years, faced the most difficult time of his life when he landed up in the hospital’s emergency department. He had severe headache followed by course of vomiting while he became unconscious. His relatives brought him to Narayana Multispecialty Hospital at midnight.
At NH Jaipur, doctors in emergency department attended to him and without wasting a minute referred him to Dr. K.K. Bansal, Consultant, Neurosurgeon. Dr. Bansal ran a CT scan through which it was diagnosed as a “Stroke” or “Brain attack” for which Rakesh had to undergo a surgery. Dr. Bansal explains Surgery is required if the hematoma (localized collection of blood outside the blood vessels) is greater than 3 cm (1 in)/ volume is between 30-to 60ml, or if there is a structural vascular lesion or lobarhemorrhage in a young patient. Surgical procedures were done in the form of opening the skull & removing the hematoma. Post-surgery Rakesh has recovered and is doing mighty well.
Timely treatment plays a key role in saving the life of a person who had stroke without extensive damage to the brain.
Dr. K K Bansal
Consultant, Neurosurgery Department
Narayana Multispeciality Hospital, Jaipur
