What is a lacunar syndrome?

Lacunar syndromes are clinical manifestations of lacunar infarctions. Lacunar infarctions are defined as small subcortical lesions with a size of less than 15 mm in diameter caused by occlusion of a penetrating artery from a large cerebral artery, most commonly from the Circle of Willis.

What is the most common lacunar stroke syndrome?

There are over 20 lacunar syndromes that have been described, but the most common ones are pure motor hemiparesis, pure sensory stroke, ataxic hemiparesis, sensorimotor stroke, and dysarthria-clumsy hand syndrome.

What causes lacunar infarct?

Lacunar infarctions are small infarcts resulting from occlusion of deep, penetrating end arteries (see the image below). They may be caused by small vessel atherosclerosis and lipohyalinosis related to hypertension or embolic occlusion.

Are lacunar infarcts common?

In summary, in this cohort of largely healthy older adults, MRI-defined lacunar infarcts are common. The most important risk factors for lacunes include increased age, diastolic blood pressure, and creatinine.

What is the treatment for a lacunar infarct?

If you have had a lacunar stroke, your doctor may recommend a daily aspirin or other blood-thinning medication, such as ticlopidine (Ticlid) or clopidogrel (Plavix). These medicines may reduce your risk, but their benefit has been more obvious for stroke types other than lacunar strokes.

Can a lacunar infarct cause vertigo?

8–10 Duration of symptoms can be from minutes to hours (generally <24 hours), although some may be recurrent or continuous for a few days. Dizziness/vertigo is also a common cerebrovascular symptom.

Is lacunar infarct serious?

Lacunar stroke is a life-threatening emergency. Some risk factors such as aging and family history are beyond your control, but certain lifestyle behaviors can influence risk.

Does lacunar infarct go away?

If medicines restore circulation to the brain quickly, symptoms of a lacunar stroke may go away within hours. If blood supply is interrupted for a longer time, brain injury may be more severe, and symptoms may last for many weeks or months, requiring physical rehabilitation.

Is lacunar infarct fatal?

However, evidence from direct pathological studies is limited because lacunar infarction has a low case fatality, autopsy rates are declining, and informative pathological studies are expensive, technically demanding and time-consuming.

How do you treat lacunar infarct?

What are the symptoms of internal capsule stroke?

Symptoms and Diagnosis. An internal capsule stroke can cause arm weakness, hand weakness, leg weakness or foot weakness, described as hemiparesis or hemiplegia.

What does lacunar mean?

lacunar [lakyo̅o̅′nər] pertaining to or characterized by the presence of pits, depressions, hollows, or spaces.

What is lacunar infarct on thalamus?

The infarct of this lacunar syndrome is usually in the thalamus. Symptoms consist of persistent or transient numbness and/or tingling on one side of the body (eg, face, arm, leg, trunk). Occasionally, patients complain of pain or burning, or of another unpleasant sensation.