Does Left Brain Function Recover Over Time In A Person With Brain Stroke?
Current Condition: On may 8 she had a seizure with no frothing, on May 9 she had seizure (for 20 minutes including 5 minutes of frothing). On admission, while waiting for the doctor, she had slurry speech and could not grip with right hand. She had 4-5 ministrokes during the day. On doing an angio, they discovered that the entire ICA was blocked and the stent had thrombosed and there was no blood flow to complete left part of brain. But other smaller arteries have supplemented and are providing slight blood flow, which increased on increasing her blood thinners dosage. The body they say is adapting slowly.
Questions:
1) Can the left brain function completely normally through these substitute smaller arteries that are compensating for the large artery? At her age can the body adapt to this (she is now 56 years old)? What is the risk percentage/ percentage of survival for her?
2) What could have triggered this sudden thrombosis? The 2 major changes in this month are: first that she had very high levels of strain suddenly this month and lifted a lot of heavy objects, could this have caused thrombosis? second change is that we discovered that her estrogen levels are very high (1400) and gave her meprate because at 56 she still has not had menopause, could this have caused the thrombosis?
Please help me with the answers
Complete recovery of brain functions is unlikely
Detailed Answer:
Hi,
Thank you for posting your query.
I have noted your mother's details, and it is unfortunate that she has suffered a brain stroke due to thrombosis of carotid artery.
1. The left brain function would partially recover over time, however, complete recovery is unlikely. This is because some brain nerves would have got irreversibly damaged due to lack of blood flow. So, we would expect to see some degree of speech impairment and weakness of right arm & leg for long time.
The chance of survival depends on the size of infarct (the area of left brain devoid of blood supply). If the affected area is not large, she would survive.
2. Thrombosis in the stent is a known complication. Stopping of plavix is one factor. Strain is not related to thrombosis.
Use of hormonal pills can increase the chances of thrombosis.
I hope my answer helps. Please get back if you have any follow up queries or if you require any additional information.
Wishing you good health,
Dr Sudhir Kumar MD (Internal Medicine), DM (Neurology) XXXXXXX Consultant Neurologist
Apollo Hospitals, XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
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