How Long Do Stroke Symptoms Last

A stroke is a near fatal medical condition in which brain cells start dying due to lack of oxygen. Often, a blocked or hemorrhaged artery is responsible for a stroke. Sometimes, a mini stroke is a precursor of an impending stroke.

On an average, 1 out of every 3 people who experience a mini stroke will go on to have a stroke. If you are able to detect the symptoms of a mini stroke, you can prevent the occurrence of a fatal stroke by taking preventive measures.

Various blood vessels supply blood and nutrients to the nerve cells in the brain. The blood and nutrients allow the brain cells to function properly. If this supply is cut, the brain cells get deprived of energy and may start losing their ability to function

If there is prolonged deficiency of nutrients and blood, then these cells may start dying, thereby seriously impairing brain and nervous function. In certain cases, the damage to brain cells may be permanent, such that a person is left visually or functionally impaired (paralysis).

Memory loss is another disastrous outcome of this condition. However, as mentioned above, such a serious form of stroke is often preceded by a mini stroke. Hence, one must be on the look out for the symptoms of a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) or a mini stroke.

Given below are a few signs of TIA.

• Blurred vision
• Slurry speech or difficulty talking
• Confusion or sense of disorientation
• Loss of control of facial expressions
• Numbness or tinging of various muscles, including that of face and arm
• Headaches, dizziness
• Difficulty swallowing
• Numbness in only one side of the body
• Unconsciousness

As these signs are often indicative of a Transient Ischaemic Attack, one must seek medical intervention without delay. However, many a time people take these signs for something less significant and waste a lot of precious time. As a stroke may strike anytime after that, one must not delay medical treatment.

A good way to check if the person is having a stroke or not is to make him raise both his arms up. If either of them falls uncontrollably, then he might be having a stroke. However, one must not rely solely on this test and rush the patient to the hospital regardless.

Symptoms of a mini stroke or TIA disappear within 24 hours. However, a fatal stroke often leaves some kind of permanent disability. This could be something less severe such as ability to organize or remember things or something as severe as paralysis.

In short, one can say that symptoms of a mini stroke appear before the attack, whereas symptoms of fatal stroke appear after that. If you are left without any significant permanent disability, you can be sure that what you had was a mini stroke.

In this case, you must get yourself a thorough check up at a hospital. The MRI scan of a patient is often unable to tell whether he had a mini stroke or a stroke. This fact indicates that though the symptoms of TIA are of a temporary nature, it may have altered the brain cells in a permanent way.

About 20% of people experiencing TIA get a stroke within 90 days. Even in case of others, your risk of getting a stroke is significantly elevated thereafter. Hence, one must be very careful about the nature and extent of their symptoms.