Cerebral Damage after Stroke: The Role of Neuroplasticity as Key for Recovery

Abstract

Stroke remains global health care problem that constitutes world’s second-leading perpetrator of mortality and third most pronounced cause of all disabilities. The hallmark of cerebral stroke is the persistent loss of cerebral function consequence of abnormality of the blood supply. The ultimate goal of stroke care is to recover and maximize the cerebral functions lost due to the cerebral damage. Therefore, understanding the mechanism of cerebral damage after stroke is fundamental to comprehension of mechanisms of recovery following stroke, as well as key towards eliminating devastating human disability as a result of stroke. Therapeutic strategies aim to harness and enhance neuroplasticity offers reasonable level of hope towards maximizing recovery from post stroke impairments. This paper therefore, highlighted the mechanism of cerebral damage after stroke as well as elucidates the concept of neuroplasticity as key for recovery following stroke.