What are the treatments for cerebral infarction?

Cerebral infarction is a common disease in the elderly. Severe cases of cerebral infarction can induce direct death of the patient. Mild cases can cause paralysis and loss of mobility. Therefore, cerebral infarction can be said to be the biggest health threat to the elderly. The treatment of cerebral infarction is relatively difficult and often requires surgical treatment. The later recovery process is slow, thus causing great inconvenience to the patient's life. Let’s take a look at the treatment methods for cerebral infarction.

1. Treatment principles: To improve blood circulation in the cerebral ischemic area and promote recovery of neurological function as soon as possible. During the acute phase, patients should rest in bed as much as possible, strengthen care of the skin, oral cavity, respiratory tract, and urination and defecation, and pay attention to the balance of water and electrolytes. If the patient is still unable to eat on his own 48 to 72 hours after onset, he should be given nasogastric liquid diet to ensure nutritional supply.

2. Nursing: The patient's daily care, diet, and treatment of other complications should be given priority. Since some patients with cerebral infarction cannot take care of themselves in the acute phase and even have difficulty swallowing, if they are not given proper nutrition, energy metabolism problems will quickly arise. At this time, even if the treatment medication is good, it is difficult to achieve good treatment results.

3. Drug treatment may restore blood perfusion in the infarcted area and reduce neuronal damage.

① Drug thrombolysis: Commonly used are urokinase (UK): alteplase (recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator); intravenous thrombolysis with streptokinase (SK) is not recommended because it can easily cause bleeding.

② Arterial thrombolytic therapy: As an emergency treatment for stroke, super-selective interventional arterial thrombolysis can be performed under direct vision of DSA. Arterial thrombolysis with urokinase combined with low-dose intravenous heparin may be beneficial for patients with stroke in the middle cerebral artery distribution who have symptoms 3 to 6/h.