Citizens' Campus: Stroke is not an inevitable stroke of fate

Becoming a care case from one day to the next: Every year, around 250,000 people in Germany suffer a stroke, including around 30,000 people under the age of 55. A quarter of them happen because the carotid arteries have changed pathologically. In around 30,000 cases, the anterior carotid artery has narrowed due to calcium and fat deposits (plaques) in the vessel wall. Blood clots can form at the narrowing points, which can lead to a blockage or, together with detached plaque particles, block the smallest vessel sections in the brain. The consequences range from temporary paralysis with impaired vision and speech to a stroke (cerebral infarction) with permanent neurological deficits. In the worst case, so much brain tissue can be damaged that paralysis remains, the person becomes dependent on care or even death occurs.

Ultrasound examinations can detect changes in the carotid arteries as a preventive measure. Let us inform you in an interesting lecture about the symptoms of a stroke, preventive examinations and surgical therapies.

The speaker is Ilhami Benli, Head Physician of the Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at the Ilm-Kreis-Kliniken Arnstadt-Ilmenau gGmbH.

Admission: 5 euros