Stroke @ Cerebral Vascular Accident (CVA) is the most common disabling neurologic disease of adulthood. It accounts at least half of the patients hospitalized with neurologic disease. Stroke is the third leading cause of death in Malaysia after hearth disease and cancer. At least 50% of the survivors suffer permanent neurologic disability and one third of survivors undergo second stroke further compounding their disability.
DEFINITION OF CVA
CVA is a complex dysfunction caused by a lesion in the brain. It results in an upper motor neuron dysfunction that produces hemiplegia or paralysis of one side of the body, including limbs and trunk, and sometimes the face and oral structures that are contralateral to the hemisphere of the brain that has the lesion. Thus a lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere, or the left CVA, produces right hemiplegia, and vice versa. Accompanying the motor paralysis may be a variety of other dysfunctions. Some of these are sensory disturbance, perceptual dysfunctions, visual disturbances, personality and intelectual changes, and a complex range of speech and associated language disorder.
CAUSES OF CVA
CVA is caused by pathological conditions in the cerebral vasculature. A compromise in the blood supply to the brain caused by trombus, embolus, or hemorrhage results in the cerebral ischemia and ultimately, in secondary brain abnormality. The onset of CVA is often unanticipated and sudden.
Cerebral anoxia and aneurysm also can result in hemiplegia. Vascular disease of the brain can result in a completed CVA or causes transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). A TIA occurs as mild isolated or repetitive neurologic symptoms that develop suddenly, last from a few minutes to several hours, but not longer than 24 hours, and clear completely. The TIA is seen as a sign of impending CVA.
DEFINITION OF CVA
CVA is a complex dysfunction caused by a lesion in the brain. It results in an upper motor neuron dysfunction that produces hemiplegia or paralysis of one side of the body, including limbs and trunk, and sometimes the face and oral structures that are contralateral to the hemisphere of the brain that has the lesion. Thus a lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere, or the left CVA, produces right hemiplegia, and vice versa. Accompanying the motor paralysis may be a variety of other dysfunctions. Some of these are sensory disturbance, perceptual dysfunctions, visual disturbances, personality and intelectual changes, and a complex range of speech and associated language disorder.
CAUSES OF CVA
CVA is caused by pathological conditions in the cerebral vasculature. A compromise in the blood supply to the brain caused by trombus, embolus, or hemorrhage results in the cerebral ischemia and ultimately, in secondary brain abnormality. The onset of CVA is often unanticipated and sudden.
Cerebral anoxia and aneurysm also can result in hemiplegia. Vascular disease of the brain can result in a completed CVA or causes transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). A TIA occurs as mild isolated or repetitive neurologic symptoms that develop suddenly, last from a few minutes to several hours, but not longer than 24 hours, and clear completely. The TIA is seen as a sign of impending CVA.
