Ischemic Brain Edema and Compression Brain Edema

Grades of recovery and outcome of patients with "stroke" have been widely reported by different authors.' There is reasonable agreement on the "poor" outcome of a certain number of surviving "stroke" patients; their number is widely estimated to vary from 19% to 35%. With the growing need for physical medicine and rehabilitation treatment and the associated mushrooming financial expenditures for facilities, questions about the proper selection of patients for therapy, the economy of the methods used, and the practicality of the results of therapy are coming to the foreground more and more. It is for those patients who after the initial acute cerebral insult appear to remain in a sort of limbo, not deteriorating but not progressing in any direction in their functional recovery, that questions like "How long do we treat this type of patient?," and "When do we stop treatment?," usually arise and beg for an answer. We do not have sound clinical criteria or objective laboratory tools to scientifically answer these questions. It is evident from the results reported in this study that, despite the initial lack of progress and what, for all practical reasons, was the initial "failure" during the first few months following a stroke, a good number of "poor" patients could still be helped. The results also show that a certain number of patients require longer periods of therapy in order to reach their maximum potential. What is more relevant, however, is the observation that for certain patients it takes a longer time before they start to show any evidence of favorable change.