What is cerebral infarction? How to treat it?

As we all know, cerebral infarction is a disease with a high mortality rate. After suffering from cerebral infarction, patients should also promptly understand the causes and treatments of the disease.

What is cerebral infarction?

Common clinical conditions include cerebral thrombosis and cerebral embolism. The former is caused by arterial stenosis, which gradually forms a blood clot in the lumen and eventually blocks the artery. The latter is caused by blockage of arteries by abnormal substances in the bloodstream called emboli, such as emboli that break off from blood clots in the heart chambers of certain heart diseases.

How to treat it?

1. General treatment in the acute phase

The principle of treatment is to improve blood circulation in the ischemic area of ​​the brain as soon as possible and promote recovery of neurological function. 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. 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.

2. Treatment of cerebral edema

(1) Mannitol is commonly used in clinical practice in the form of 20% mannitol hypertonic solution. Mannitol is one of the most commonly used and effective dehydrating agents.

(2) 10% glycerol fructose can produce pharmacological effects through hypertonic dehydration. It can also utilize the energy generated by glycerol metabolism into the brain metabolism process, thereby improving local metabolism. Through the above effects, it can reduce intracranial pressure and intraocular pressure, eliminate cerebral edema, increase cerebral blood volume and cerebral oxygen consumption, and improve brain metabolism.

(3) Diuretic dehydration agents such as furosemide (Lasix) and sodium urate can be injected intermittently intramuscularly or intravenously.

(4) Adrenal cortical hormones are mainly glucocorticoids such as hydrocortisone and cortisone. Their secretion and production are regulated by corticotropin. They have anti-inflammatory, immunosuppressive and anti-shock effects, but are generally not used routinely.

(5) Human albumin (albumin) Human albumin is a medium molecular weight colloid that plays an important role in generating colloid osmotic pressure, which helps retain fluid in the vascular cavity. It is generally not used routinely.