Posterior Circulation Strokes

Medical Director Minute

Its estimated that up to 20 % of strokes involve what is called the posterior circulation of the brain. The significance of this fact is these strokes are not picked up or scored well on the NIH stroke scale and many other stroke scales because those scales are looking for larger territory anterior and middle cerebral artery strokes. Posterior circulation strokes affect the cerebellum, the balance center of the brain, the occipital lobe, responsible for interpreting visual input, and the brain stem. These strokes can involve significant deficits and yet score very low on these standardized scales. In this episode, we discuss the anatomy of the posterior circulation, the signs and symptoms that often occur with posterior circulation stroke syndromes and how to detect posterior strokes