Treatment of Strokes

A REMARKABLE expansion in knowledge of the diagnosis and the pathophysiology of cerebrovascular disease has occurred in the past 20 years. The role of the extracranial circulation as a cause of intracerebral vascular insufficiency has become generally accepted.1 Physicians now recognize the critical importance of differentiating the four separate diseases that together are termed "stroke" — thrombosis, embolism, intracerebral hemorrhage and ruptured aneurysm. The selection of the therapy of choice for a given type of stroke is extremely difficult. Old modes of therapy have been discarded, and new ones are being tested. A large number of poorly controlled and unscientific . . .