Stroke in children

Comparing stroke in children with stroke in adults can provide interesting information because age and cerebral plasticity induce specific clinical fe atures and outcome. Arterial ischemic strokes are the most frequent in chil dhood although the problem is not one of arteriosclerosis. Arterial dissect ion, Moya-Moya syndrome, and cardioembolic and thrombogenic events induced by hemoglobin diseases and hyper-homocyteinemia must be detected at the fir st event. In some cases, onset is marked by head trauma or an infectious sy ndrome. The important feature is that outcome is better than in adults and is marked by onset of hemidystonia, partial epilepsy. Aphasia is benign if stroke arises before the child has learned to write.