A stroke is an acute violation of cerebral circulation. A very common disease that affects not only the elderly today. As for Russia, the highest mortality rate from a stroke is recorded in our country. Among those patients who survived it, the indicators are not encouraging. Only 20% of people were able to return to normal.
What are the consequences of a stroke for women? What treatment is carried out? Why does a stroke happen? What recovery forecasts do experts provide? We will give answers to these questions in the article.
What is it?
If we talk about ischemic stroke, this is an acute insufficiency of the blood supply to the brain, which leads to a violation of the most important neurological functions. Its common causes are blockage of blood vessels by blood clots or emboli. Due to a lack of blood supply, entire parts of the brain die. Accordingly, the functions for which they were responsible are violated.
In addition to ischemic stroke, hemorrhagic and subarachnoid are distinguished. But in medical practice, cases of stroke predominate precisely in the ischemic type (70-85%), when clogging or squeezing of blood vessels occurs as a result of embolism, thrombosis or other cardiovascular diseases.
With a hemorrhagic stroke, there is no compression, but a rupture of blood vessels with subsequent hemorrhage in the brain, blood entering its ventricles, under the membranes. Such a stroke is diagnosed in 20-25% of patients.
The rarest type is subarachnoid (1-7%). This stroke has a traumatic nature. It is a consequence of a rupture of arterial aneurysm, some kind of traumatic brain injury. There is an outpouring of blood into the space between the soft and arachnoid membranes of the brain.
A stroke is generally called an attack in which a focal or cerebral neurological deficit lasts more than a day. That is, during this time, the blood supply to the brain cells is sharply disturbed. Those conditions in which neurological functions are restored after no more than three weeks are called small, micro-stroke.
The consequences of a stroke in women depend on the period during which parts of the brain lacked blood, and with it oxygen and other elements necessary for cells.
Risk factors
What triggers a stroke? Cardiovascular diseases, injuries that result in blood vessels supplying the brain with blood. The consequences of a stroke in women can be the most serious. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor your health if you are at risk:
- Age from 50 years (it is necessary to pay attention to the correct regimen "sleep-wakefulness").
- Arterial hypertension (shown to keep a diary of blood pressure measurements).
- Chronic heart disease (it is necessary to undergo diagnosis on time, to carry out full treatment).
- Ischemic transient attacks (they are alarming precursors of both stroke and heart attack).
- Work related to constant nervous strain.
- Addiction to smoking (affects blood pressure).
- Overweight.
- High levels of "bad" cholesterol in the blood.
- Asymptomatic stenosis (compression) of the carotid arteries.
- Diabetes.
- Hereditary predisposition (stroke was diagnosed in close relatives).
Symptoms
In this article, we consider the symptoms and consequences of a stroke in women. This dangerous condition manifests itself as follows:
- Paralysis of the limb, half of the body (respectively, distinguish between right-sided and left-sided stroke), less often - the whole body.
- Sensory impairment in one half of the body.
- Loss of field of view.
- Visual impairment in both one and both eyes.
- Doubling in the eyes.
- Indistinct speech.
- Partially or completely impaired coordination of movements.
- Skewed face.
- Dizziness.
- Nystagmus (uncontrolled rotation of the eyeballs).
- Loss of thread of conversation, confusion in words.
- Turbidity, loss of consciousness.
What are the symptoms and consequences of a microstroke in women? The same thing stands out, the same signs of this condition. May be expressed more weakly or partially.
How to learn about a stroke?
The consequences of a stroke in women can be the most serious. It is important to correctly determine this condition, since symptoms can manifest themselves partially, in different combinations. You need to ask a person to take a simple test:
- Ask for a smile. The face in a pathological condition will be skewed, and the smile is asymmetrical.
- If a person is sitting or standing, ask him to raise his arms 90 degrees, if he is lying - 45 °. In a stroke, one arm will drop.
- Ask for a simple phrase. With a stroke, a person's speech is illegible.
First aid
Once again, the consequences of a stroke in a woman in old age can be the most serious - even fatal. Therefore, self-medication in this case is dangerous for the life and health of the patient.
If the test gave you reason to think that a person has a stroke, call an ambulance as soon as possible. Before the arrival of specialists, you can help the victim by:
- If a person is lying, raise his head slightly.
- Loosen clothes, restricting his body, breathing.
- Measure your blood pressure.
- Offer a medicine that normalizes blood pressure. But only from the means that the patient took earlier.
- Lower the patient's legs into a basin with moderately hot water.
- Turn the victim on his right side. If a person feels gagging, place a tray under his mouth.
- If the patient loses consciousness, get his tongue out and squeeze in such a way that he does not fall.
Treatment
Treatment is carried out only in a hospital. It includes the following areas:
- Basic therapy. Monitoring body temperature, relieving seizures, eliminating headaches, maintaining water and electrolyte balance, monitoring and further correcting cardiac activity, vascular status, blood pressure, and blood glucose. According to indications - oxygen therapy.
- Thrombolytic therapy aimed at restoring normal blood flow in the vessels.
- Anticoagulant therapy aimed at preventing the formation of blood clots in blood vessels.
- Elimination of cerebral edema with the help of diuretics.
Proper care of the patient is also important. Without this, complications associated with prolonged immobility can be added to the consequences of a stroke in a woman in old age. Congestive pneumonia, thromboembolism, thrombophlebitis, bedsores and their further infection.
It is necessary to turn the patient from side to side, make sure that the bedding does not stray into folds. Perform physical and speech gymnastics with him, do massage.
Additional therapeutic measures
To smooth out the consequences of a stroke in women (right-sided, left-sided), additional modern treatment methods are introduced:
- Drug treatment.
- Botox therapy.
- Exercise therapy.
- Physiotherapy.
- Massage.
- Kinesthetics.
- Reflexology.
- Bobath therapy.
- Phytotherapy.
- Special diets.
- Psychotherapy.
- Ergotherapy.
Consequences after a hemorrhagic stroke
The consequences of a stroke in a 40-year-old woman are in most cases not as severe as in an older person. But it all depends on the individual course of the disease, the area of damage to the brain.
In general cases, the consequences of a hemorrhagic stroke are as follows:
- Serious problems with movement, speech, memory, clarity of thinking.
- The most common consequence is partial paralysis. It affects one limb - arm or leg, part of the face, right or left, depending on the location of the brain lesion. In a paralyzed limb, there is a partial or complete loss of motor activity, a change in sensitivity, muscle tone.
- Change in behavior, psychological state of the patient: speech becomes incomprehensible and incoherent, there is a clear violation of the sequence of letters, sounds.
- Problems with memory, recognition of individual characters, depression, apathy.
Consequences after ischemic stroke
The consequences of a stroke in young women are not as pronounced as in older people. However, this is general data. The clinical picture in individual cases may be completely different.
As for ischemic stroke, in most cases the consequences are not as severe as with hemorrhagic. The patient is more likely to recover faster and more fully. But positive predictions are rare and there are few cases where a serious violation of cerebral circulation passes without a trace to the patient.
The most common consequences:
- Speech impairment.
- Impaired swallowing function.
- Impaired motor function.
- Difficulties in processing information.
- Changes in patient behavior.
- The appearance of pain syndromes caused not by physiological, but neurological problems.
Severe complications
The consequences of a stroke in women (left-sided, right-sided) can be aggravated by additional factors:
- The main focus of brain damage is located in its functionally significant areas. In particular, in the speech and motor center.
- The scale of the lesion of the brain.
- The venerable age of the patient is the main difficulty in restoring motor skills.
- A gross violation of the tone of the muscles of the limbs.
- Violation of the muscular-articular sensation (the patient does not feel where his limb is if he does not see it).
- Decreased intelligence.
- Emotional consequences (in particular, depression).
Forecasts
These may be the consequences of a brain stroke in a woman. We now turn to the forecasts of specialists:
- Stroke mortality in the Russian Federation is the highest in the world - 175 deaths per 100,000 population per year. Within a month after a stroke, more than 34% of victims die. Throughout the year, a fatal outcome is noted in relation to every second patient.
- Of the stroke survivors, only 20% recover relatively completely. That is, they are not assigned disability.
- 18% of victims lose their speech function.
- 48% of stroke survivors lose their ability to move independently.
The chances of recovery in this case are enhanced by the following:
- Early start of rehabilitation.
- Maintaining intelligence in the same state.
- Active interest of the patient in recovery.
- The right rehabilitation program.
Recovery
Rehabilitation of the patient will be more successful if it is based on the following principles:
- An early start - as soon as the life of the victim is in danger.
- Consistent and systematic application of techniques. It begins with massage, then proceed to passive gymnastics. Next - physiotherapy exercises, training on simulators, physiotherapy.
- Complexity Rehabilitation is not limited to restoration of motor functions. A stroke inflicts a serious blow on the psycho-emotional background. The patient needs a speech therapist, neuropsychologist, psychiatrist to restore speech, memory, clarity of thinking.
The effects of a stroke on women cannot be called negligible. Their severity is affected by the patient’s age, the magnitude of the damage to the brain zones, and the type of stroke. General forecasts here can be fundamentally different from individual ones.