Cerebrovascular Disease Treatment in South Africa

Cerebrovascular diseases are conditions that affect the supply of oxygenated blood in the brain.

What are the various types of cerebrovascular?

Vascular dementia- This condition involves insistent damage in cerebral capability that is a result of complications in blood circulation in the brain or stroke.

Stroke- Stroke is the damage of a part of the brain due to insufficient blood supply or bursting of a blood vessel in the brain.

Subarachnoid hemorrhage – This involves bleeding of blood on the surface of the brain. It is basically a type of stroke and can lead to severe brain damage or instant death.

Transient Ischaemic Attack- This disease involves a temporary fall in the blood supply to some parts of the brain and may lead to a fatal stroke. This condition lasts between a few minutes to a day. It serves as a sign of an imminent stroke that is likely to happen at any time.

• Imbalanced walking
• Impaired speech
• Eyesight loss in one eye
• Inability to raise arms
• Dropped mouth that renders the person unable to smile or talk
• A severe and abrupt headache
• Paralysis of one part of the body
• Seizures and fainting
• Coma
• General body weakness

• Interruption of blood supply to the brain
• Bleeding of arteries in the brain
• Blood leak on the brain surface
• Natural birth complications
• Head injury

Adults are more commonly to develop cerebrovascular diseases as compared to children. In children, the stroke may be caused by sickle cell, injury on the neck during playing or even congenital heart disease. Smokers and people diagnosed with diabetes are also vulnerable to these conditions. 

Diagnosis of cerebrovascular diseases

A vascular surgeon can perform a physical examination on you to determine whether you have any of the cerebrovascular diseases. The doctor may also consider only the symptoms exhibited by the patient to determine the particular cerebrovascular disease that an individual suffers. CT and MRI scans will clearly display the images of the damages of the blood vessels (arteries) in the brain. However, many considerations are made before finalizing the diagnosis of any of these diseases. These considerations may include age, brain conditions, cardiac, among others.

Treatment of cerebrovascular diseases

Treatment of these cerebrovascular diseases will depend on a number of factors that include:

• Severity of disease
• Health status of individual
• Nature of the disease

Treatment can be done through catheters, wire mesh stents or surgery. All these procedures are undertaken to patch up bleeding arteries. Those individuals who are unresponsive to the said procedures may be subjected to processes similar to carotid Endarterectomy or stenting. Healthy lifestyles are also recommended to prevent cerebrovascular diseases. These measures entail:

• Regular physical exercise
• Avoid stress and anger
• Weight check
• Control blood glucose levels
• Eating a healthy and well-balanced diet
• Lowering cholesterol levels