Serious Complications Linked To An Embolic Stroke

Seizures

Over one-fifth of all patients who survive a stroke will experience one or more seizures. A seizure is a medical event where there is irregular and abnormal electrical activity in a patient's brain that causes specific symptoms. Some individuals describe what is going on in the brain during a seizure to be similar to an electrical storm with disorganized electrical activity. Common behaviors that occur in individuals who experience a post-stroke seizure are body convulsions and spasms. Post-stroke seizures usually happen sometime within the first few weeks following a stroke. Patients who have had an embolic stroke are at an increased risk of having seizures because regular electrical activity in the brain is unable to occur in the presence of scar tissue. The tissue injury that occurs in an individual's brain when they have an embolic stroke can cause the body to form scar tissue in the affected part of the brain. Scar tissue can interrupt the healthy electrical activity in the individual's brain, and this can trigger a seizure.

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Depression

After an individual has experienced an embolic stroke, they may develop certain conditions, like depression, they did not have before. Around twenty-five percent of all individuals who have a stroke will develop depression following their health crisis. Depression is a condition characterized by hopelessness, sadness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, appetite changes, apathy, sleep pattern changes, and sometimes suicidal thoughts. Biochemical alterations take place in the brain of an individual who has an embolic stroke. Following an embolic stroke, the patient may not be able to feel positive emotions appropriately. Damage and changes in the brain can cause the development of depression, as can the impact of the loss of certain abilities because of a stroke. Depression following an embolic stroke can be very problematic, especially if they have a long road to recovery ahead of them. The rehabilitation of an individual's physical abilities that may have been impaired or lost from the stroke can become extremely challenging if depression is not managed successfully.

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