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LIFE HISTORY OF THE STROKE SYNDROME
Author(s) -
MILLER MICHAEL B.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1968.tb02101.x
Subject(s) - medicine , rehabilitation , stroke (engine) , mainstream , medical history , intensive care medicine , pediatrics , physical therapy , surgery , mechanical engineering , philosophy , theology , engineering
A bstract : A case report is given to illustrate the combination of minor and major strokes in one life history. Recovery of function, prognosis and mortality rates are discussed, with inclusion of data from some of the better reports in the literature. The clinical life history of the stroke syndrome and meaningful studies on prognosis are almost impossible to carry out completely in general medical practice, in community hospitals, or in specialized rehabilitation centers as currently constituted. When criteria for admission to health‐care facilities exclude patients with any degree of organic brain syndrome as being “poor risks” or having “poor rehabilitation potential,” this obviously results in biased studies. Since patients with cerebral infarcts and organic brain syndrome comprise an important segment of the stroke problem, their inclusion in clinical studies dealing with stroke rehabilitation and prognosis is mandatory. All facilities in which the stroke patient may be domiciled, proprietary or voluntary, short‐term and/or long‐term, should be brought into the mainstream of medical knowledge if significant studies of the physical, psychiatric and social problems of stroke patients are to be evaluated properly. A standardized nomenclature for the various syndromes of cerebral ischemia is long overdue. We still need a much more complete understanding of this age‐old phenomenon.