A very common disease today is stroke. And if earlier a stroke was mainly found in old age, now the age category has significantly decreased: it can even be in a child. A stroke is a severe circulatory disturbance in the brain. It is very important here to quickly provide assistance to the patient, otherwise, if such assistance is not provided within a day, then this can lead to death. Lack of oxygen and nutrients leads to death of brain tissue. Such disorders most often occur as a result of vascular diseases. The most common cause of a stroke is a sharp increase in pressure or atherosclerosis. Factors that contribute to the onset of stroke include neuropsychic stress, inactivity, as well as too high-calorie foods and vasomotor dystonia.
A stroke against the background of severe hypertension is very common. In hypertensive patients in the cerebral cortex, congestive foci of excitement can occur. They affect the hypothalamic region, as a result of which the regulation of vascular tone is disrupted, the compensatory reserves are depleted. Then there is an acute violation of cerebral circulation. During hypertensive cerebral crises, swelling of the brain tissue and vasospasm occurs. Strong stress can provoke it. If a stroke occurs against a background of severe hypertension, a severe headache, also dizziness and pressure on the eyes, may occur. The patient begins to feel sick, there is a noise in the ears, perhaps even a visual impairment, begins to double in the eyes. A person may even lose consciousness, sometimes convulsive phenomena occur.
During hypertensive cerebral crises, the pressure jumps sharply, vegetative disorders such as chills or fever occur. In addition, tension may occur in the muscles of the neck. Movement disorders can occur - a person can be paralyzed, the face is distorted to the right or left side. Speech disturbances occur, a person cannot speak clearly.
When a stroke occurs against a background of severe hypertension, the patient may even fall into a coma. It is very dangerous. Sometimes, as a result of circulatory disorders in the brain, death occurs. When the brain stem is affected, dizziness appears, the gait becomes staggering, coordination of movements is disturbed. Sometimes it becomes difficult to swallow, a person for a while may lose the ability to walk.
Stroke is ischemic or hemorrhagic. The most dangerous is a hemorrhagic stroke, in which rupture of blood vessels occurs. Ischemic stroke most often occurs at night, and without loss of consciousness. There are fatal and non-fatal ischemic strokes. If the patient has not died within 28 days from the onset of symptoms of a stroke , if he has survived this period, then a stroke is considered not fatal. Most often, such a stroke occurs in people in old age, although today there are many cases of ischemic stroke and in fairly young people.
Lifestyle risk factors include smoking, obesity, unhealthy diets, and severe stress. Very often, ischemic stroke develops against the background of diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, and also because of a hereditary predisposition. In addition, such a stroke may occur against a background of severe hypertension.
In the case of ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic, the treatment is different. With ischemic stroke, the main task is to quickly restore blood flow in the brain. To do this, in the first hours of emergency medical treatment. The patient is injected with drugs that thin the blood. If ischemic stroke is observed, treatment should be immediate. The sooner the therapy is started, the better the prognosis will be. To reduce coagulation, antiplatelet agents are introduced, they increase the patient's chances of survival, and also reduce the risk of complications after a stroke. Mostly used drugs such as aspirin, warfarin, as well as heparin and clopidogrel.
In addition to such therapy, thrombolytic therapy is carried out during treatment, the purpose of which is to dissolve the thrombus, which closed the lumen of the vessel. For this purpose, a modern drug is used - an activator of tissue plasminogen. With its help, the thrombus dissolves. But such a method is effective in the first four and a half hours.
Sometimes, in addition to drug therapy, invasive procedures are required. This may be the intra-arterial administration of thrombolytic, when the activator is injected directly into the affected cerebral artery. Mechanical clot removal is sometimes used.