What is a stroke?
The Kompetenznetz Schlaganfall has also published a patient brochure on this topic:
A stroke is the result of a sudden circulatory disorder in the brain. As a result of these processes, the nerve cells in the brain receive too little oxygen and nutrients and die. Other terms for a stroke are apoplexy, cerebral insult or cerebral infarction.
How does a stroke occur?
A stroke can be caused by:
a lack of blood flow (ischemia) because a blood vessel leading to the brain suddenly becomes blocked, or a hemorrhage caused by the sudden rupture of a blood vessel.
A circumscribed reduced blood flow (ischemia) of the brain is by far the most common cause of a stroke. It can come about in various ways.
Due to thrombosis:
An artery becomes blocked by a blood clot, a thrombus, which has formed in a larger or smaller blood vessel in the brain. Such vascular occlusions do not usually occur in healthy cerebral vessels, but in those whose walls have already been damaged by arteriosclerosis, i.e. by calcium and fat deposits.
Due to an embolism:
The starting point is a blood clot that has formed in the heart or in the large vessels leading to the brain, e.g. the carotid artery. Parts of such a blood clot can break off and travel through the bloodstream to the brain, where they can block an important blood vessel.
Around 15% of strokes are caused by a burst blood vessel (hemorrhage or hemorrhage). Blood pours into the brain tissue.
