Massage methods for cerebral infarction

Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
Updated on September 03, 2024
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For patients with cerebral infarction, many of them suffer from facial paralysis, often characterized by crooked mouth and eyes and drooling. To alleviate symptoms and help improve the asymmetry of the mouth and eyes, it is suggested to massage the facial and neck muscles of the patient. It is generally recommended to seek an experienced Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner who can use manual massage techniques, targeting specific acupoints to effectively relieve pain and improve symptoms. For patients with motor dysfunction or even hemiplegia, manual massage can effectively help prevent muscle atrophy, relieve muscle rigidity, and reduce muscle tone.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Symptoms of cerebral infarction

For patients with cerebral infarction, during the acute phase, they typically exhibit clear symptoms of headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. Patients may experience slurred speech, difficulty speaking, and obvious articulation disorders. Additionally, some patients may develop facial nerve paralysis, deviation of the mouth to one side, drooling, and often exhibit clinical signs such as a shallower nasolabial fold and disappearance of forehead wrinkles. Furthermore, some patients may also experience dysphagia, manifested by coughing when drinking water, and may be accompanied by aphasia or motor dysfunction, primarily presenting as motor aphasia, mixed aphasia, anomic aphasia, and resulting unilateral limb paralysis.

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Brain infarction belongs to which department?

Brain infarction is usually classified as a neurology disease. Patients with brain infarction often exhibit clear symptoms of headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and significant swallowing dysfunction, leading to coughing while drinking. Some patients may also experience facial nerve paralysis to some extent, manifesting as unclear speech, difficulty speaking, and articulation disorders. When the aforementioned clinical symptoms occur, the possibility of brain infarction is considered high. Performing a cranial MRI scan for patients can help determine the specific location, number, and severity of the infarction. Generally, it is recommended to treat patients with brain infarction during the acute phase with drugs that enhance brain function, nourish the nerves, and promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis, and many patients can achieve satisfactory treatment results. (Specific medications should be used under the guidance of a physician.)

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Written by Chen Yu Fei
Neurosurgery
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Causes of Cerebral Infarction

At present, there is no consensus on the specific causes of cerebral infarction. It is mostly seen in patients with underlying diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia, where there has not been adequate control of the patient's blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. This can lead to significant increases in blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Over time, this might result in the formation of atherosclerotic plaques in the patient’s blood vessels. When these plaques break off and enter the bloodstream, they travel with the blood flow and can lodge in the narrow vessels of the brain. This causes blockage of the blood vessel and leads to ischemia, necrosis, softening, and degeneration of the brain tissue in the affected blood supply area, ultimately causing a cerebral infarction.

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Written by Hao Li Bin
Neurosurgery
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How is a cerebral infarction treated?

The treatment principles for cerebral infarction include thrombolysis, anticoagulation, volume expansion, lowering blood pressure, and brain protection. The main goal is to improve the blood circulation in the ischemic area of the brain as soon as possible and promote the recovery of neurological functions. During the acute phase, patients should rest in bed as much as possible, enhance care for skin, oral cavity, respiratory tract, and excretion, and maintain electrolyte balance. If a patient still cannot eat 48 to 72 hours after onset, nasogastric feeding with liquid nutrition should be provided to ensure nutritional supply. The priority should be given to the patient's daily care, diet, and the management of other comorbidities. Since some patients with cerebral infarction cannot take care of themselves during the acute phase and may even have difficulty swallowing, without adequate nutrition, metabolic issues can arise quickly. In such cases, even the best medications can fail to achieve positive outcomes. Since cerebral thrombosis is the most common type of cerebral infarction characterized by high incidence, high mortality, high recurrence rate, and high disability rate, patients may experience mild hemiplegia or severe scenarios leading to loss of life. Therefore, lifelong medication is necessary to prevent recurrence, achieve secondary prevention, and ultimately reduce the recurrence of cerebral infarction.

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Written by Gao Yi Shen
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Methods of Cerebral Infarction

There are many methods for treating cerebral infarction, but it is essential to make judgments based on the situation, as each patient's condition is different and requires different treatment approaches. For patients with acute cerebral infarction, treatments such as emergency thrombolysis or thrombectomy can be undertaken. For chronic cerebral infarction, initially, medical treatment is applied, including managing blood pressure, lowering blood lipids, stabilizing blood sugar levels, quitting smoking and alcohol, etc. Subsequently, this includes the oral administration of antiplatelet aggregation medications, which can effectively reduce the recurrence of cerebral infarction. Finally, corresponding surgical treatments are considered, including endarterectomy, superficial temporal artery to middle cerebral artery anastomosis, and appropriate stent implantation surgeries, depending on the specific characteristics. (Specific medications should be administered under the guidance of a physician.)