A cerebral infarction is a very complex disease both for treatment and for the further life of the person who suffered it. At the same time, the abundance of affected areas of the brain will certainly cause irreversible dysfunction, since highly differentiated brain tissue very quickly changes irreversibly. Only 7 minutes in conditions of insufficient blood circulation are able to turn off parts of the cerebral cortex forever.
Cerebral infarction is provoked by numerous factors, among which the main role belongs to thrombosis of blood vessels of a large circle of blood circulation or the separation of an atherosclerotic plaque from the inner lining of the carotid artery. Moving through the vessels, a blood clot or atherosclerotic plaque will always block the lumen of the vessel, which is smaller in size than themselves. Also, the embolus can also get from the left half of the heart with valve vegetative endocarditis or transmural myocardial infarction. A cerebral infarction can also be caused by blocking the lumen of the vessel with a gas bubble that enters the bloodstream during open heart surgery. After vascular embolization, the brain tissue experiences a severe deficiency of oxygen and glucose. Moreover, such deficiency is very dangerous for brain cells - it leads to irreversible shutdown of the affected area from work. As a result, acute cerebral infarction develops, the symptoms of which depend on the localization of the lesion focus and its volume. In another way, this disease is called ischemic stroke.
Types and symptoms of cerebral infarction
Several types of ischemic stroke are distinguished, depending on the location of the vessel blocked by the embolus. It can be heart attacks in the pool of the front, back and middle cerebral arteries. Less often, the vessels of the vertebro-basilar basin are involved in the process, which is explained by the small clearance of its vessels, because the cerebral infarction localized there is much smaller. The first symptoms that occur with a cerebral infarction are the following changes:
- The patient does not experience pain due to the lack of these receptors in the brain.
- In this case, the leading signs of a heart attack is paresis of motor activity on the opposite side of the lesion. Weakness of the limb, the inability to make meaningful movement are the criteria for central paralysis.
- However, there are involuntary movements in this limb, which is realized due to the segmental apparatus of the spinal cord.
- Symptoms also include paresis of facial muscles, especially with a heart attack in the middle cerebral artery basin.
- Then motor aphasia (loss of speech) is also observed due to the defeat of Brock's speech center, located in the lower frontal gyrus. In women, speech activity can be maintained due to the presence of two speech centers in each of the hemispheres.
- Also, on the side of the lesion, a symptom of an enlarged pupil is often visible, but in the other eye it is of normal size.
Is it possible to cure a cerebral infarction?
If you or your family suffered a cerebral infarction, treatment for it can be delayed indefinitely. For this, several different groups of drugs are used that provide pathogenetic and symptomatic therapy. The first type of medication includes antiplatelet agents and thrombolytics, for which it is advisable to use aspirin + clopidogrel, as well as streptokinase or alteplase. For symptomatic therapy, drugs suitable for the relief of convulsive syndrome and autonomic disorders of the heart and respiratory activity are suitable. It is also advisable to introduce nootropic drugs that will improve brain activity, although they will not restore the affected cells. In any case, even with the patient’s timely admission to the hospital, it is practically impossible to return him to a full life after suffering a cerebral infarction.