Each stroke is an emergency. Dial 112.
What is a stroke?
Stroke occurs as a result of a sudden circulatory disorder in the brain. Due to vessel obstruction or a bleeding, brain cells are damaged and brain tissue starts to die, thus, leading to paralysis and functional disorders. Nowadays, a stroke is one of the main causes for need of care. Every year, approx. 300,000 people in Germany have a stroke. After cancer and cardiovascular diseases, stroke is the third most common cause of death in Germany. Within the first four weeks every fifth dies. More than half of the patients have to live on with a disability or invalidity with 20 percent of them being severely to most severely disabled. By prompt treatment at a specially equipped hospital the negative effects of stroke can be met efficiently.
How do you recognize a stroke?
In many cases, stroke can be noticed ahead of time by the following symptoms:
- paralysis on one side of the body, mainly in arm and face
- numbness, itching and physical weakness on the side of the body concerned
- sudden inability to utter words or whole sentences
- problems to understand spoken words or sentences
- sudden extremely severe headache
- perception of double images
- vertigo
- severe one-sided vision problems
What can you do?
If you have noticed any of the above mentioned symptoms with you or other people in your environment, please immediately contact the rescue emergency medical services of the Red Cross,
telephone 112.
In case of acute stroke immediate action is vital.
The first 3 – 6 hours after the onset of the symptoms are the most important hours because each stroke requires inpatient treatment in a specially equipped hospital.
What is a stroke unit?
Since 2005, patients with acute stroke have been treated in the "Klinikum Landau-Südliche Weinstraße" in a stroke unit in cooperation with the "Pfalzklinikum".
The stroke unit is a special treatment unit associated to the intensive care unit. It disposes of all state-of-the-art diagnostic procedures and treatment possibilities.
The treatment team consists of physicians (neurologists and specialists in internal medicine), nurses trained in intensive care as well as physiotherapists and speech therapists having experience in the rehabilitation of stroke patients.
How is stroke treated?
At the beginning of the treatment, it is important to immediately find the cause of stroke. In particular, it has to be clarified if a vessel supplying the brain is blocked or if there is a brain bleeding. For this purpose, modern imaging techniques such as computer tomography (CT), nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), ultrasonic examinations of the arteries in neck and head as well as ultrasonic examinations of the heart are required.
Subsequent treatment depends on the cause of stroke. In case of a bleeding, the question arises if an operation is necessary, in case of a vessel obstruction it has to be clarified if a drug-assisted re-opening (lysis therapy) shall be carried out.
If more than 6 hours have elapsed since the onset of symptoms, irreversible damage to the brain has to be expected.
During treatment in a stroke unit, the vital functions are continuously monitored during the critical phase of the disease. It is also important to start psychotherapeutic and, if required, speech therapy measures early.
After treatment in the stroke unit, the patient is - at an early stage – transferred to a neurological hospital for continuing treatment.
Only the sum and complexness of all measures guarantees an optimum success of treatment.
Each stroke is an emergency! If a stroke is suspected, dial:
112, the emergency number of the German Red Cross