Adult stroke care
We offer comprehensive adult stroke care that begins the moment a patient is seen emergently with a new stroke, stretches through the initial hospitalization and continues as a patient is discharged and starts rehabilitation.
The two components of our adult stroke care are the inpatient wards where a patient is under the care of our dedicated stroke team and the outpatient clinics where stroke survivors are seen for ongoing consultation.
Our inpatient team is a dedicated team responsible for helping a patient in the first few days after a stroke has occurred. This is a critical time in a stroke survivor’s journey. We lay the groundwork to help understand why a stroke has occurred, offering the most current, evidence-based treatments to minimize the chance of further strokes. At the same time, we begin assessments for rehabilitation needs and discharge planning with plans individualized to fit each patient’s specific needs.
Some stroke patients may require initial admission to our Neurological ICU. In such cases, we work together with our neurointensivist colleagues until the patient is ready to be transferred to the care of our adult stroke team.
Ongoing evaluation and care of a stroke occurs in our Comprehensive Adult Stroke Clinic where we offer continued assessments and care plans for stroke survivors. Many strokes are due to well-known traditional stroke risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, obstructive sleep apnea, heart disease and others. Controlling these risk factors is critical to help minimize the chance of future strokes.
Our specialists, also, offer subspecialty clinics related to more rare causes of stroke. This includes stroke due to issues such as the following:
- Carotid or vertebral dissections
- Genetic causes of stroke such as sickle-cell disease, Fabry disease and others
- Moyamoya disease
- Fibromuscular dysplasia
- Arteriovenous and other intracranial vascular malformations
- Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome
- Inflammatory blood vessel disorders such as temporal arteritis and cerebral vasculitis (infectious, toxic and others)
- Cancer-associated stroke
- Venous disorders such as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis
Many of these causes of stroke require a treatment team, and in such cases, we are experienced in working with our colleagues to offer the best treatment plan according to each patient’s individual needs and goals for their own care. Treatment teams may include our colleagues from Neurosurgery, Neurointerventional Radiology, Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Hematology, Oncology, Vascular Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology and others.
For more information related to our faculty as well as their specific clinical and research interests, see the Our Care Team page.
For information related to our dedicated team responsible for the emergent evaluation of a stroke patient, see the HASTE team page.
For more information related to rehabilitation following a stroke, see the Neurorehabilitation team page.
Pediatric stroke care
The Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Program provides evaluation for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of all types of stroke in children.
For more information, see the Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Program website.