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Complications

By Mayo Clinic staff

A stroke can sometimes cause temporary or permanent disabilities, depending on how long the brain suffers a lack of blood flow and which part was affected. Complications may include:

  • Paralysis or loss of muscle movement. Sometimes a lack of blood flow to the brain can cause a person to become paralyzed on one side of the body, or lose control of certain muscles, such as those on one side of the face. With physical therapy, you may see improvement in muscle movement or paralysis.
  • Difficulty talking or swallowing. A stroke may cause a person to have less control over the way the muscles in the mouth and throat move, making it difficult to talk, swallow or eat. A person may also have a hard time speaking because a stroke has caused aphasia, a condition in which a person has difficulty expressing thoughts through language. Therapy with a speech and language pathologist may improve this disability.
  • Memory loss or trouble with understanding. It's common that people who've had a stroke experience some memory loss. Others may develop difficulty making judgments, reasoning and understanding concepts. These complications may improve with rehabilitation therapies.
  • Pain. Some people who have a stroke may have pain, numbness or other strange sensations in parts of their bodies affected by stroke. For example, if a stroke causes you to lose feeling in your left arm, you may develop an uncomfortable tingling sensation in that arm. You may also be sensitive to temperature changes, especially extreme cold. This is called central stroke pain or central pain syndrome (CPS). This complication generally develops several weeks after a stroke, and it may improve as more time passes. But because the pain is caused by a problem in the brain instead of a physical injury, there are few medications to treat CPS.
  • Changes in behavior and self-care. People who have a stroke may become more withdrawn and less social or more impulsive. They may lose the ability to care for themselves and may need a caretaker to help them with their grooming needs and daily chores.

As with any brain injury, the success of treating these complications will vary from person to person.

Preparing for your appointment Risk factors
References
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DS00150 July 1, 2010

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