home > disease information > stroke > treatment of a stroke

Treatment of a stroke

Strokes are a medical emergency and treatment should be sought as soon as possible. The sooner a stroke victim is treated, the less damage is likely to occur.² Immediate stroke treatment usually includes brain tests, scans for bodily functions, monitoring oxygen, glucose and blood pressure levels, and administering medication to stop the stroke from becoming worse.¹

Typical medication that may be used after a stroke includes:

• Antiplatelet medicines: These help to break up the clot that has formed. It also helps to reduce the ‘stickiness’ of platelets found in the blood, which prevents more clots from forming and causing another stroke.^{5, 1}
• Anticoagulants: Like antiplatelet medication, these also help to prevent blood clots from forming by changing the chemical composition of the blood.² Anticoagulants may be prescribed if you have certain pre-existing heart conditions.⁵
• Statins: These reduce cholesterol levels in the blood by blocking an enzyme in the liver that produces cholesterol.²
• Blood pressure medication: ACE inhibitors, thiazide diuretics.²

The treatment given for a stroke depends on the stroke’s severity, but also on the type of stroke that has occurred. Depending on whether you’ve had an ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke, you may require surgery, including:

• Carotid endarterectomy: This operation may be performed if you have a carotid stenosis that has resulted in an ischaemic stroke. A carotid stenosis is a narrowing or blockage of your carotid artery due to a build up of plaque or fatty deposits. During the operation, the carotid artery is opened and the fatty deposits are removed.^{2, 5}
• Craniotomy: If you’ve had a haemorrhagic stroke, where blood has moved out of the blood vessels, you may have to have surgery to remove blood from the brain and repair the burst blood vessels.²

Treatment for a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) involves addressing the conditions that led to it, as well as preventing those conditions from leading to a more serious stroke. Typically, TIAs are treated using a combination of normal stroke medicines. For example, if high blood pressure and cholesterol levels were responsible for the mini-stroke, your treatment may be a combination of statins and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.²

Rehabilitation

Following a stroke, rehabilitation aims to restore and maximise quality of life. Most hospitals that deal with stroke patients have various specialists who help with physical and psychological stroke rehabilitation. These specialists may include physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, dieticians, and psychologists.⁵

Disease Information

• Angina
• Depression
• Diabetes (Type 2)
• Heart Attacks
• Heart Failure
• High Blood Pressure
• Osteoporosis (Postmenopausal)
• Stroke