Cerebrovascular Attack Case Study

A Cerebrovascular accident, a brain attack, or more commonly known as a Stroke, is the most common disabling neurological disorder (Aminoff, Greenberg and Simon, 2015), which affects 1.8% of the Australian population, this is an estimated 264,900 people(Abs.gov.au, 2015) . The World Health Organisation (World Health Organisation, 2015) states that a stroke is an “interruption of the blood supply to the brain, usually because a blood vessel bursts or is blocked by a clot. This cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients, causing damage to the brain tissue”, which can result in lasting brain damage, long-term disability, or even death. What makes a stroke so unique, is that the outcome of a stroke is different for every person. This essay

A TIA is characterised by an “acute loss of focal cerebral or monocular function with symptoms lasting less than twenty-four hours and which is thought to be due to inadequate cerebral or ocular blood supply” (Lindley, 2008). A Transient Ischemic Attack is often a warning to a patient or health professional, that a more severe stroke is to come (Cannon, 2015). A TIA is referred to as a mini stroke as patients generally make a full recovery within a twenty-four hour time period (Lindley, 2008), this is because the blockage that occurs in the artery in the brain like an ischemic stroke, is reversed without

It occupies the front and top portions of the skull, performing sensory functions, motor functions and integration functions such as mental activities. The cerebrum is divided into the right and left sides, or hemispheres. Depending on the area of the cerebrum and which side is affected by a strokes, different functions can be impaired. John Hopkins Medicine (2015) defines the effects that a stroke can have on the left side of the cerebrum as being “left-sided weakness or paralysis and sensory impairment, left neglect which is when a patient denies their paralysis or impairment, inability to see the left visual field of each eye, spatial problems with depth perception or directions, such as up or down and front or back, inability to localize or recognize body parts, inability to understand maps and find objects, such as clothing or toiletry items, memory problems, behavioural changes, such as lack of concern about situations, impulsivity, inappropriateness, and depression”. A stroke that occurs on the right side of the cerebrum, can cause impairments in areas such as (John Hopkins Medicine, 2015) paralysis, sensory impairment and weakness in the right side of the body, language difficulties, inability to see in the right visual field of each eye, impaired ability to do math or to organize, reason, and analyse items, behavioural changes, such as depression, cautiousness, and