Saturday, 10 March 2012

Signs and Symptoms of Stroke

Brain cells will not be able to function well when the brain is lack of oxygen. So this causes the person who is having stroke unable to do things properly. The symptoms of stroke depend on the amount of brain tissue damage and also the area of brain that has been affected. Small stroke may not cause any symptom but it can still damage brain tissue.
Stroke symptoms usually come suddenly. This is because they are caused by an abrupt interruption of blood flow to an area of the brain.  It only takes a few seconds for that part of the brain to stop functioning.
The symptoms include the following :

  • Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg on one side of the body.
  • Sudden confusion,  trouble speaking or understanding.
  • Double vision or sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
  • Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
  • Sudden trouble writing.
  • Sudden and unusually severe headache . However, only a small proportion of strokes produce headache symptoms. But because of  the sudden onset of  severe headache, doctors may suspect that there is internal bleeding of the brain that will cause death. So  people who go  into the emergency room complaining of severe headache are immediately sent to screen for  the presence of blood in the brain.
How long the symptoms last  is depends on how long the affected part of the brain remains without blood flow.  Short  events of poor blood flow  lead to a complete recovery  while longer events can leave permanent deficits.

Strokes usually affect only one side of the body. The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body while the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body . When a blood vessel carries blood to a part of the brain and is blocked, only the side of the brain where the blood vessel is located is affected. This causes symptoms in the opposite side of the body.

If you think you are having a stroke, you should call 911 immediately. It is better that you get to the emergency room quickly to get earlier treatment. You should also get ready to answer the following question to help the doctors choose the best treatment.

  • What time did your symptoms start?
  • What is your complete medical history?
  • Have you ever had a stroke or  had bleeding  inside of your brain?
  • Do you have any metal inside your body? ( to decide whether MRI can be used for imaging.)
  • What medications and supplements do you take on a regular basis?
  • Do you have bleeding disorder?
Take note : You should not wait for the symptoms to go away and you should not take aspirin on your own . Besides, do not drive to the hospital on your own.

Patients will be admitted to the hospital for monitoring and further testing to figure out the cause of the stroke and ways to prevent a future stroke.



4 comments:

This comment has been removed by the author.

Sorry. Deleted it accidentally. Btw the question is will these signs still show after treatment?

Lao Sai Kia,

Whether or not these signs and symptoms will still show after treatment would have to depend on the severity of the stroke complications and also the ability of the person to recover lost abilities such as walking or talking. But normally, the patients who had suffered from less severe cases would be able to recover completely.

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