Stroke patients can control permanent nerve damage within the first three hours of stroke with proper treatment thus reducing the chances of paralysis, doctors say.
Navi Mumbaikars who worry about stroke and the ensuing paralysis have hope. "If a patient is managed in a dedicated stroke unit within three hours, the chance of a full-functional recovery is very high," says Dr V Iyer, endovascular neurosurgeon, from a prominent hospital in the city.
"This means that a person can walk home without any part of his body being paralysed. And we have clot-buster drugs that can remove the blocks in the brains," he says.
What is stroke?
A stroke which is actually a brain attack is most often confused with heart disease. It Is caused when the blood vessel in the brain is blocked or ruptured leading to slowing down of blood supply to the brain. It is the rapidly developing loss of brain function that can cause death or in several cases severe paralysis.
In India, 130 per 1 lakh is the calculated incidence rate of stroke and 12% of the patients are less than 40 years of age. And less than one per cent of the patients get timely treatment even in big cities. Timely treatment and early initiation of preventive treatment reduce the risk of recurrent stroke by 80%.
"Patients of diabetes, obesity, hypertension (blood pressure) and smoking are under the high risk category. Globally it is the second most leading cause of death and most frequent cause of permanent disability is case of patients older than 45 years," says he.
However, according to Dr R Kulkarni, a surgeon at a leading hospital, it is more important to treat the causes of stroke to cure it permanently. "Stroke is caused by hypertension, diabetes, smoking, alcohol and its important to treat these root causes for a 100% recovery," he says.
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