Get your copy of the Understanding Pediatric Stroke e-book, from Boston Children's Hospital. Inside, you'll learn: How strokes affect kids differently, common stroke symptoms and what to do in an emergency, the importance of long-term care, how to advocate for your child, where to find resources and support and more!
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Welcome to the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. Our goal is to provide the very best care for stroke and stroke-related conditions, helping each child recover as quickly and fully as possible.
We see children of all ages — from newborns through adolescents — with a variety of strokes and stroke-related conditions. These include arterial and venous strokes, ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes, and strokes caused by specific underlying conditions, such as congenital heart disease, sickle cell disease, moyamoya disease, and other diseases of the blood vessels. Stroke can affect all parts of a child’s brain and spinal cord.
Our approach to pediatric stroke
As the only multidisciplinary pediatric stroke center in the northeastern U.S., our team includes child neurologists, hematologists, neurosurgeons, neuroradiologists, interventional neuroradiologists, emergency medicine physicians, physical and occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, neuropsychologists, and physical and rehabilitation medicine physicians.
This diverse team of specialists is dedicated to caring for children with stroke, non-traumatic bleeding in the brain, and other cerebrovascular disorders. We see children at every stage of stroke from acute care in the emergency department through long-term follow-up, rehabilitation and planning for each child’s educational needs.
Together, we offer:
- Rapid, comprehensive evaluations, including advanced neuroimaging, to identify quickly whether a stroke has occurred and what parts of the brain or spinal cord could be affected
- Access to therapies administered in the earliest stages of stroke that are designed to remove blockages in brain blood vessels
- Long-term multidisciplinary care to prevent additional strokes
- Resources to help children and parents deal with the consequences of stroke at home and in school
The stroke team also collaborates closely with the Cerebrovascular Surgery and Interventions Center, which treats abnormalities of the blood vessels of the brain and spine that can lead to stroke, and with the Thrombosis, Anticoagulation, and Vascular Patency Program to care for our patients who require anticoagulation treatment.
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Our areas of innovation
The Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center is one of the most active pediatric stroke research centers in the world. Through our participation in ongoing clinical and laboratory studies, we aim to improve our understanding of the various factors involved in pediatric stroke, as well as increase our knowledge of treatment options.
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Raising awareness after treatment for pediatric stroke
Austin has experienced two major strokes. Now he hopes to raise awareness — and money for research.