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| Image Credit: Wikimedia |
Young Physicians Section Board of Directors
Originally Published: Common Sense January/February 2017
Stroke is a common disease seen by emergency physicians with over 800,000 new cases in the U.S. each year (Mozaffarian, 2016). Both ischemic (embolic or thrombotic) and hemorrhagic stroke patients frequently have derangement of their blood pressure, in addition to the fact that 70% of stroke patients have hypertension as a chronic condition (Miller, 2014). Acute hypertension management has long been a vital component of the medical management of stroke patients. However, guidelines are frequently changing and recent literature has demonstrated that large fluctuations in systolic pressure, whether up or down, lead to adverse outcomes (Anderson, 2013). In this brief review, I want to lay out a framework for dealing with hypertension in stroke patients, based on recent literature and guidelines from the American Stroke Association (ASA).
