Spotlight

Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke, also known as a brain attack.

More »

Contact Us
1.866.STROKE3
(866.787.6533)

 

As the first hospital in Orange County certified as a primary stroke center by The Joint Commission, UC Irvine Medical Center is a national leader in stroke treatment and rehabilitation. The Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center was the first in the nation to receive this prestigious certification recognizing it as one of America’s best-equipped treatment centers for people suffering a stroke. Hospitals nationwide have used the program at UC Irvine Medical Center as a model when designing similar programs for their medical centers.

Select a physician »

Our program

The Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center is staffed by a diverse array of specialists, including neurologists, neurosurgeons, intensivists and neuroradiologists. Key elements of the program include:

• Acute stroke team
• Integrated emergency response system
• Rapid interpretation of CT scans from Emergency Department
• Neurologists, neurosurgeons and interventional neuroradiologists available 24 hours a day
• Treatments to reverse stroke, such as clot-retrieval devices and clot-dissolving drugs
• Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit
• Research to reverse the effects of stroke
• Clinical care protocols
• Ongoing quality assurance and patient outcome reporting

What is a stroke?

There are two main types of stroke, ischemic and hemorrhagic. Both deprive brain cells of their needed blood supply, but through different mechanisms of injury.

An ischemic stroke results when a clot blocks an artery that brings blood to the brain. The vast majority, 85 percent of strokes, arise in this way.

A hemorrhagic stroke results from the rupture of an artery inside the brain or in the space surrounding it. Approximately 15 percent of strokes arise in this manner.

Stroke treatment

The response team at the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center acts swiftly to stabilize vital signs, definitively diagnoses the stroke, locates the precise site of the blood vessel blockage or breakage, and if appropriate, administers highly specialized clot-dissolving drugs.

An important new treatment for reducing disability after ischemic stroke, the clot-busting drug tPA, must be administered within three hours of the onset of stroke symptoms. For patients who arrive at the hospital too late to receive clot-busters intravenously, the still-experimental intra-arterial (IA) tPA treatment, which uses a catheter to deliver tPA directly to the spot in the brain where the artery is blocked, extends the treatment window to six hours.

For hemorrhagic stroke due to the rupture of an aneurysm (a weakened bulge in the blood vessel), treatment can include placement of a metal clip at the base of the aneurysm, or the minimally-invasive placement of materials to reinforce the aneurysm from within.

Recovery

Rehabilitation is a critical part of recovery for most stroke survivors. The effects of stroke often change how well a patient can perform activities of daily living. Stroke rehabilitation often improves an individual’s function and level of independence.

Rehabilitation provides different forms of therapy to patients with a wide range of physical disabilities. Rehab specialists develop a treatment program specifically suited to each patient. The team includes:

• Physicians specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation
• Neuropsychologists
• Occupational therapists
• Physical therapists
• Speech therapists

All types of stroke-related disabilities can be treated during rehabilitation. These may include problems with balance, walking, speaking, or using an affected hand to perform desired tasks. Services are provided on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.

Innovators in stroke care

Our researchers are actively involved in clinical studies aimed at developing innovative treatments to restore function following a stroke. Furthermore, as the county’s only university-based hospital, we are actively researching ways to prevent stroke. Patients enrolled in clinical studies have access to new medications and treatments not available elsewhere in Orange County.