May is “Stroke Awareness Month” and we remind everyone, that a ruptured Brain Aneurysm IS a form of Stroke.
Strokes are the No. 1 cause of disability and the No. 4 cause of death in the United States, according to the American Stroke Association. There are two main types of strokes: ischemic and hemorrhagic.
In laymen’s terms: The main difference between an aneurysm and stroke has to do with how the two conditions affect blood vessels. An aneurysm is a bulging of a blood vessel that may rupture (hemorrhagic stroke). Conversely, a stroke is caused when oxygen and nutrients cannot get to parts of the brain because a vessel breaks or because of a blockage in the vessel (ischemic stroke).
Ischemic strokes account for 87% of all stroke cases. When a blood vessel becomes blocked by fatty deposits, blood has trouble passing through to the brain. An ischemic stroke is caused by this obstruction. A thrombotic ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot forms at the blocked part of a vessel. An embolic ischemic stroke occurs when a blood clot forms at another spot in the body and travels to a vessel in the brain that’s too small to let it pass.
A hemorrhagic stroke is caused by a weakened blood vessel that ruptures and bleeds into the brain – an aneurysm is a sort of bubble in a blood vessel that can grow until it bursts. That can cause a hemorrhagic stroke or subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) – often referred to as a “brain bleed”.
STROKE SHOULD BE TREATED AS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY – GET TO A HOSPITAL.