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Stroke is no cure. Some treatments are hospital care, medicines, trans catheter interventions, surgery and rehabilitation.

Often, stroke is due to some form of cardiovascular disease. In these cases, treatment should be directed to the cause of cardiovascular disease. Damaged heart valves, for example, can be replaced or repaired surgically. Patients with atrial fibrillation, a type of arrhythmia, can take blood-thinning drugs (anticoagulants) to prevent clotting. Oral anticoagulants and aspirin appear to reduce the risk of stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation.

More information on this site:

* Valve Disease
* Arrhythmia

Possible Treatments

There are different types of drugs to treat stroke. Those that are beneficial for one type of stroke can increase the damage caused by another type. For example, the clot-dissolving drugs can be effective in the treatment of ischemic stroke (caused by a blood clot), but may increase the damage caused by a hemorrhagic stroke (stroke), because they can lead to bloodshed in the brain.

Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is a clot-dissolving medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States. TPA is a major breakthrough in treating strokes caused by blood clots, which constitute about 88 percent of cases. Although tPA can not be used in all cases of stroke (as it can cause bleeding in the brain) has proven effective in treating ischemic stroke when administered within three hours of onset of symptoms.

Upon arrival at the hospital after suffering a stroke, patients may receive anticoagulant (warfarin) or antiplatelet (aspirin, ticlopidine or clopidogrel) to prevent another blood clot formation. You may also receive pain medicine if you have a very strong headache.

Blood pressure may rise during a stroke, because the body tries to compensate for the reduction of blood flow to the brain. For this reason, could not be recommended to reduce blood pressure immediately after a stroke, especially in patients with chronic hypertension and autoregulation of blood flow to the brain differently.

For some patients, other treatments may include:

* The administration of beta blockers, calcium channel blockers or inhibitors of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors to control hypertension,
* The regulation of insulin in diabetic patients and
* The administration of cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) in patients with elevated levels.