Stroke care at HonorHealth

Stroke affects 750,000 Americans each year, and more than 500,000 of these cases are preventable. When you have a stroke, your brain does not get the blood it requires. Without the oxygen and nutrients carried in the blood, brain cells start to die within minutes. Because stroke is a medical emergency, you need prompt treatment to lessen brain damage and complications.

Neurologists at HonorHealth often compare stroke with heart attack, referring to stroke as "a brain attack." What happens in the heart during a heart attack also happens in the brain during stroke. The longer blood supply is interrupted, the more your brain tissue suffers damage. Just as "time is heart" with heart attacks, "time is brain" with strokes.

For this reason, it's important to get treatment for stroke quickly. After the onset of stroke, approximately two million brain cells die each minute, until treatment is administered.

Learn more about:

• Stroke symptoms and types
• Stroke tests and treatment

At HonorHealth, emergency stroke care involves a skilled, highly coordinated team of neurologists, neurosurgeons, radiologists, nurses, rehabilitation physicians and therapists. Together, using the latest diagnostic and surgical techniques, they can identify and try to reverse brain damage caused by stroke.

Stroke risk factors

Diseases of the heart and stroke also share many risk factors. They include:

• Smoking
• Lack of exercise
• Poor diet
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• High cholesterol

Other risk factors include age and a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol.

Prevention

Many risk factors can be curbed through a stroke prevention program outlined by your HonorHealth doctor.

Once you've suffered a stroke, you're 10 times more likely to suffer another. Taking steps toward a healthier lifestyle can play a big part in decreasing your risk. Here are some ways to reduce your risk:

• Stop smoking
• Engage in physical activity on a regular basis
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Eat a healthy diet, including a low-sodium diet if you have high blood pressure
• Maintain a healthy blood pressure
• If you have a heart condition, including valve disease or irregular heartbeat, work with your doctor to monitor and control it
• Take medication as directed

Recognized excellence in stroke care

Across our system, HonorHealth provides specialized stroke care that can significantly improve outcomes for patients, especially those with complex needs. DNV Healthcare, an international certifying agency approved by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has recognized four of our medical centers for the high level of care they provide:

• Scottsdale Osborn Medical Center: Primary Stroke Center Plus, the only Arizona hospital to achieve this designation. In addition to the comprehensive, specialized care that Primary Stroke Centers offer, Scottsdale Osborne Medical Center performs thrombectomies. This is an innovative surgery to remove blood clots from arteries and veins.
• Scottsdale Shea Medical Center: Primary Stroke Center
• John C. Lincoln Medical Center: Primary Stroke Center
• Deer Valley Medical Center: Primary Stroke Center

Patients should call 911 if they or a loved one is having a stroke.