What is the treatment for pediatric stroke?

A stroke is an interruption of the blood supply to any part of your child?s brain. Your child will be treated by doctors in a variety of specialties who form a team to make sure that your child has the best possible care.

Neurologists, neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-ophthalmologists, pediatric cardiologists and hematologists, among others, may join together to evaluate and develop a treatment plan for your child. The team will decide whether observation, medical management, or surgery in some cases is the best option, or if a combination of these approaches will be more effective. Below is a description of various options in treating pediatric stroke:

•Medical therapy - this may include aspirin, blood thinners called anti-coagulants, or special vitamins. If your child has sickle cell anemia and has suffered a stroke, your doctor may also want to have your child undergo blood transfusion therapy or take hydroxyurea, which is a chemotherapy drug. Other treatment options are available, depending on your child's particular situation. For example, if your child has seizures because of a stroke, he or she might need anti-seizure medication.
•Surgery - if the tests show that the blood vessels leading to your child?s brain are abnormal, your doctor may recommend surgery. This surgery will serve to increase blood flow to your child's brain. There is not a surgical procedure to "cure" a stroke, but rather it may prevent new strokes in your child.
•Interventional neuroradiology - in patients with arteriovenous malformations, which means a tangle of abnormal blood vessels which feed the brain, or with aneurysms, a catheter can sometimes be placed inside the blood vessel to treat the condition, without requiring surgery.