Stroke Symptoms

When brain cells are deprived of oxygen, they cease to perform their usual tasks. The stroke symptoms depend on the area of the brain that has been affected and the amount of brain tissue damage. Therefore, each person may have different stroke warning signs.

Stroke may be associated with a headache, or may be completely painless. Small strokes may not cause any symptoms, but can still damage brain tissue. These strokes that do not cause symptoms are referred to as silent strokes.

The FAST test is an easy way to recognize and remember the most common signs of a stroke. The FAST test stands for:

• Facial weakness - can the person smile?  Has his mouth or eye drooped?

• Arm weakness - can the person raise both arms?
• Speech difficulty - can the person speak clearly and understand what you say?
• Time to act fast - call 000 immediately

The most common stroke symptom is sudden weakness of the face, arm or leg, most often on one side of the body.

Common Stroke Symptoms

Other common stroke symptoms and signs include:

• Sudden numbness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body 
  • A lack of muscle strength in a group of muscles, most commonly the muscles of face, hand, arm and leg on one side (called hemiparesis). At least half of patients suffer some form of hemiparesis, some with a mild form that involves difficulty in controlling movement, rather than weakness. Try to raise both your arms over your head at the same time. If one arm begins to fall, you may be having a stroke.
  • A loss of sensation or feeling in some part of the body.  Numbness of the skin of the face, hand, arm, and leg on one side (hemi-anesthesia) is most common.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech 
  • Slurring of speech (from weakening of face, mouth, and throat muscles) may be accompanied by swallowing difficulty. There may be difficulty in understanding others’ speech, finding the right words, understanding written words or in writing (aphasia). Try to repeat a simple sentence. If you can’t, you may be having stroke.
• Sudden loss of vision, blurred or decreased vision in one or both eyes
  • There may be total loss of vision in one eye, or loss of vision in half the visual field of each eye, or double vision.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
  • Injury to inner ear nerves may cause stumbling, loss of balance, and a spinning feeling (vertigo). May cause nausea, unsteadiness on the feet, a tendency to veer to one side or the other, or an unexplained fall. 
• Sudden severe headache, usually severe and of abrupt onset or unexplained change in the pattern of headaches, with no known cause.
  • Headache - may result from stretching or irritation of the membrane covering the brain or the blood vessels in the brain.
  • Subarachnoid hemorrhage may be preceded by the sudden onset of an extremely severe ‘thunderclap’ headache, together with neck stiffness.

Less Common Stroke Symptoms 

Less common stroke symptoms include:

• Nausea and vomiting associated with vertigo; common at the outset of subarachnoid hemorrhage
• Drowsiness or unconsciousness may occur briefly depending on the location of the injury in the brain
• Epileptic seizures (10% of patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage).