Cerebrovascular Coma - Signs, Causes And Symptoms

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Cerebrovascular coma

Cerebrovascular coma develops with various disorders of arterial circulation in the brain, such as ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, which leads to severe functional disorders.

Signs of cerebrovascular coma

One of the earliest and most characteristic signs of cerebrovascular coma is sudden headache. It usually appears in the evening, especially after emotional or mental stress, has a dull, diffuse character and intensifies with tilting the head. Further it starts for no apparent reason.

There are complaints of increased fatigue, loss of performance, mood swings, sleep disturbances, when the patient wakes up at night and can no longer fall asleep.

After a while, cognitive impairments are added - memory for numbers, names, events occurring decreases; verbal counting becomes difficult, the patient becomes too fussy. Then there is a noise in the ears, at first unstable, then it becomes continuous and monotonous; accompanied by dizziness caused by disorders of the vestibular apparatus.

The skin of the face and visible mucous membranes become bluish, sometimes there is swelling of the face. Fainting is common, accompanied by cold snap and cyanosis of the extremities. Periodic cerebral crises lead to severe pathological dysfunctions of the brain and are accompanied by the development of weakness in the limbs (hemiparesis), as a rule, on the one hand, speech becomes slurred and indistinct, sensitivity decreases, vision drops sharply. Convulsive seizures often occur, there is a disorder of consciousness.

If there is a positive trend in the patient's condition during the first day, then a transient cerebral circulation disorder is diagnosed. If the condition is unchanged or the dynamics are negative, we can talk about a stroke. In this case, severe brain dysfunctions have irreversible consequences and persist until the end of the patient's life.

Quite often, transient disorders of cerebral circulation are masked by micro-strokes, which are very difficult to differentiate. With a further exacerbation of hypertension, cerebral edema may begin, signs of which are sudden severe pain in the head, aggravated by coughing and sneezing, constant dizziness, nausea and vomiting. There is often a lack of coordination.

Causes of cerebrovascular coma

The causes or predisposing factors in the development of cerebrovascular coma are most often: atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels, high blood pressure, congenital malformations of cerebral vessels or arteriovenous aneurysms, vasculitis, trauma, and heart disease.

Cerebrovascular coma symptoms

Symptoms of cerebrovascular coma depend on which arteries in the brain have impaired circulation. If a circulatory disorder occurs in the system of the internal carotid artery, then the patient develops a speech disorder or a short hemiparesis on one side of the body opposite to the lesion focus.

If circulatory disorders occur with cervical osteochondrosis, patients usually complain of dizziness, severe headaches localized in the occiput, nausea. At the peak of the attack, vomiting occurs.

Coordination functions are impaired, double vision appears in the eyes, speech becomes slurred. With a severe and prolonged course of hypertension and progressive atherosclerosis of the cerebral vessels, as a result, circulatory failure develops with organic vascular lesions of varying severity. The patients develop unreasonable irritability, emotional instability. Attention becomes scattered, there is a decrease in memory, intelligence. As a result of blockage of cerebral arteries, severe consequences of cerebral circulation disorders are formed, expressed in gross functional disorders.

If there is a subarachnoid hemorrhage under the arachnoid membrane of the brain, then in the clinical picture the main symptom is a sharp headache, like a blow to the back of the head, redness (hyperemia) of the face, the pulse becomes rare. Often there are seizures, emotional excitement increases.

All patients with signs of developing cerebrovascular coma must necessarily be consulted by a neuropathologist to clarify the diagnosis. The prognosis of the disease depends on the severity and nature of the transient cerebrovascular accident.

Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist

Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".