What are the oral medications for cerebral infarction?

When a cerebral infarction occurs, if the correct judgment cannot be made, it will be life-threatening for the patient. Therefore, people with cerebral infarction often carry medicines with them so that they can get effective and timely help when the symptoms recur. So what are the oral medicines for cerebral infarction? The main problem of cerebral infarction is blood viscosity and poor circulation. The drugs used are mainly vasodilators, which can improve microcirculation.

The first category is vasodilators (such as dipyridamole). In the past, it was believed that as long as the drug can dilate cerebral blood vessels, it can allow more blood to pass through blocked blood vessels. In recent years, however, it has been discovered that vasodilators not only fail to achieve this, but can also cause blood from the diseased area to flow back into healthy brain tissue (this is called cerebral steal syndrome), so their use is no longer recommended.

The second category is drugs that improve microcirculation and expand blood volume (such as low molecular weight dextran

wait). This type of medicine is currently used more frequently, but people with heart disease should use it with caution, otherwise it may cause heart failure.

The third category is drugs that dissolve blood clots (such as urokinase, etc.). It would be ideal if this type of drug could dissolve thrombi, but systemic intravenous administration often requires large doses and carries the risk of bleeding. Interventional treatment is now recommended to patients, which is to inject drugs directly into the infarction site through a catheter to dissolve the thrombus. However, a cerebral angiography must be performed before and after this treatment, which itself has certain risks. Moreover, interventional treatment requires patients to undergo the procedure within 6 hours of onset of the disease, and sometimes the opportunity has been missed.

The fourth category is anticoagulant therapy (such as heparin, etc.). This type of drug can prevent blood clotting, but the prothrombin time and activity must be checked daily when used, which cannot be done in hospitals with poor conditions. In addition, anticoagulant therapy also carries the risk of bleeding.

The fifth category is the use of calcium ion antagonists (such as nimodipine, etc.). These drugs prevent calcium ions from flowing from outside the cell into the cell. It can slightly dilate cerebral blood vessels, protect brain cells, and increase brain cells' utilization of oxygen and glucose.

The sixth category is drugs that prevent platelet aggregation and can prevent further formation of blood clots. At present, this type of drug is widely used in the world, but it is more appropriate to say that it is a preventive drug rather than a therapeutic drug, because the effect of using this type of drug in the acute phase of stroke is not ideal.

7The seventh category is traditional Chinese medicine. The main function of traditional Chinese medicine is to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis. It is now widely used in China and is also the safest and most effective drug for the treatment of cerebral infarction in clinical practice.