Pediatric stroke: features and causative disorders

Abstract

The prevalence of pediatric stroke is much lower than that of adult stroke. There are two important features in pediatric stroke. One is the pathophysiology of pediatric stroke is different from that of adult stroke. The other is that pediatric stroke has many kinds of causative disorders. According to the data of children hospitalized with stroke in U.S., hemorrhagic stroke comprised 43% of strokes and is more common in the younger children. Ischemic stroke comprised of 57% and is more common in the older children. In this review, we focused on five disorders in pediatric stroke (hemorrhagic stroke in neonate, acute infantile hemiplegia, moyamoya disease, arterial dissection and arteriovenous malformation). We summarized the pathophysiology and treatment of these disorders.