Why did my mouth become crooked after a nap?

60-year-old Mr. Wang slept with the window open. When he woke up the next morning and stood in front of the mirror, he found that his mouth was crooked. Mr. Wang’s wife was very worried and accompanied the family to the hospital for examination. The doctor said that Mr. Wang had a stroke.

Uncle Wang was puzzled. Why did he have a stroke out of nowhere?

Stroke is actually also called cerebral infarction, which is caused by blockage or rupture of cerebral blood vessels, which prevents the brain tissue from getting enough blood supply, resulting in damage to the brain tissue. Stroke is divided into two categories: ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke. Among them, ischemic stroke is more common, accounting for about 69.6% to 70.8% of strokes in my country.

Ischemic stroke is mainly caused by atherosclerosis and thrombosis in the cerebral arteries, which lead to severe stenosis or blockage of the blood vessels. This process does not happen in a day or two, but takes several years, more than ten years or even decades.

When endothelial cells are damaged, this is also the initiating factor of atherosclerosis → lipids continue to accumulate → atherosclerotic plaques form → atherosclerotic plaques protrude into the blood vessel lumen and cause vascular stenosis → plaque ruptures → platelets aggregate and thrombus forms → causing severe stenosis or blockage → insufficient blood supply to the brain, thereby damaging nerve cells.

The most common treatments for ischemic stroke include intravenous thrombolysis, intravascular interventional therapy, antithrombotic therapy, etc. The specific treatment method should be based on the specific condition to make a corresponding treatment plan.

However, because ischemic stroke is characterized by high incidence, high recurrence rate, high disability rate and high mortality rate, the prognosis of limb function is poor. About 1/3 of patients become disabled or die after 1 year, and are often accompanied by various sequelae such as sudden facial paralysis like Mr. Wang, as well as dysphasia, weakness or imbalance of one side of the limbs, unstable gait, splitting headache, nausea and vomiting, impaired consciousness, etc., which seriously affect the patient's physical health.

Ischemic stroke is more likely to recur, with a 1-year recurrence rate of 8.2% and a 5-year recurrence rate of 41%. Moreover, the degree of disability and mortality of patients after recurrence will increase. It is recommended that active prevention and control of risk factors is the key to preventing stroke, reducing the possible comorbidities of ischemic stroke patients, such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, etc. Doctors will give antihypertensive drugs, statins, hypoglycemic drugs, antiplatelet drugs and traditional Chinese medicine according to the patient's condition, which can reduce at least 80% of ischemic stroke patients' recurrence.

In acute ischemic stroke, blocked blood vessels should be opened as soon as possible. For every minute of delay, 1.9 million brain cells will die. Therefore, in the treatment of acute ischemic stroke, special emphasis is placed on “time is brain”.

Therefore, to quickly identify a stroke, remember the “befast” formula:

B—Balance is difficult to balance

E—Eyes cannot see clearly

F—Face

A—Arms are uneven

S—Speech is unclear

T—Time to call 120