Stroke

Stroke center in Ventura and Los Angeles counties

A stroke occurs when brain cells die from a lack of blood flow to the brain tissue. The team at Los Robles Health System is here for you to ensure you understand what causes a stroke and how to recognize symptoms quickly for effective stroke prevention and treatment.

To find a Los Robles Health System physician specializing in stroke treatment, please call our Consult-A-Nurse® line at (877) 888-5746.

Types of stroke

The stroke center at Los Robles offers both ischemic stroke treatment and hemorrhagic stroke treatment to make sure all patient stroke conditions are covered.

Ischemic stroke

The most common type of stroke, an ischemic stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted, causing severely reduced blood flow, otherwise known as ischemia. Obstructed blood vessels are caused by fatty deposits that build up in blood vessels or by blood clots or other debris that travel through your bloodstream and lodge in the blood vessels in your brain.

Hemorrhagic stroke

A much less common form of stroke, a hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel bursts and leaks blood into or around the brain. Brain hemorrhages can result from many conditions that affect your blood vessels, and some factors that can lead to them include uncontrolled high blood pressure, aneurysms, intense physical trauma such as car accidents, overtreatment with blood thinners, among others.

Signs of a stroke

It is vital to be able to recognize the signs of a stroke, as they are quite sudden. These warning signs may include:

• Confusion or trouble speaking and understanding speech
• Difficulty seeing in one or both eyes
• Numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, often on one side of the body
• Severe headache with no known cause, sometimes with nausea or vomiting
• Trouble balancing or walking

Prompt treatment can stop some strokes as they are occurring, so the sooner you get to the hospital, the greater your chance for a meaningful recovery.

Are you at risk?

Some risk factors are out of our control, a perfect example being age, as the American Heart Association warns that stroke risk approximately doubles each decade after age 55. Additionally, patients with family histories of stroke or heart disease are at greater risk for strokes. However, despite all of this, we can control most risk factors for strokes. Some of these factors include:

• Controlling high blood pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Managing cholesterol levels
• Quitting smoking

Whether you or a loved one is experiencing stroke symptoms, we want you to feel assured that the multidisciplinary stroke team at Los Robles is available at all times.

If you think you or a loved one are having a stroke, call 911 immediately.

Stroke prevention

Emergency treatment for stroke is very serious, but it can be prevented. We want you to have all available tools and information to be able to effectively recover from and reduce your risk for all types of stroke.

Los Robles offers a full range of services to treat and prevent strokes. We are able to check patients for aphasia, neglect, eye deviation and obtundation, or, less than full alertness.

As a Primary Stroke Center, paramedics can automatically take at-risk patients directly to Los Robles instead of the closest hospital. This saves valuable time and could be the difference between life and death for someone suffering from a stroke. Additional available services include the following:

Transcarotid Artery Revascularization

Los Robles is the first hospital in Ventura County to perform Transcarotid Artery Revascularization (TCAR) as a means to treat carotid artery disease and prevent future strokes. TCAR is a minimally invasive procedure accomplished via a small incision just above the clavicle on your neckline. At the incision, the surgeon places a tube directly into the carotid artery and connects it to a system that temporarily reverses blood flow, ensuring that any plaque or debris that may break off are diverted away from the brain and captured in an exterior filter. Once the flow of plaque away from the brain is stabilized in the carotid arteries with a stent, blood flow resumes its normal direction.

Intelligent control device

Los Robles was the first hospital in the country to be able to surgically treat inaccessible blocked blood vessels, also known as distal occlusions. These blockages are incredibly disabling for patients, and new intelligent control technology available at Los Robles allows our surgeons to reach and retrieve clots in a more efficient way than was previously available.

As an adjustable, fully visible stent retriever, this device is uniquely able to safely restore blood flow to the brain during ischemic stroke. Further, we are able to ensure over 80 percent patient revascularization success, with nearly 60 percent of patients living independently after 90 days.

Embolization assist treatments

Los Robles was also the first hospital in the world to perform minimally invasive embolization assist treatments using inventive new technology. The devices used by our surgeons were the first and only devices cleared by the FDA in a new category of temporary coil embolization assist devices for the treatment of brain aneurysms.

Stroke prevention during surgery

As a leader in surgical technology adoptions, Los Robles employs several cutting-edge devices to help patients avoid strokes during critical surgeries.

Procedures where stroke prevention methods are used include:

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement

A transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive heart procedure to replace a malfunctioning narrowed aortic valve. Optimal for patients experiencing complications from open-heart surgery, TAVR procedures run the risk of dislodging embolic debris, including pieces of the arterial wall, valve tissue, calcium, or other foreign material, which can lead to stroke.

At Los Robles, our surgical team is able to use a state-of-the-art device that prevents strokes by capturing and removing this dislodged embolic debris before it can reach the brain. Clinical studies show that patients who undergo TAVR with these types of surgical protections have a significant reduction in risk of stroke as opposed to patients who undergo surgery without protection.

Left Atrial Appendage Closure

This procedure is used for patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heartbeat condition that increases risks for stroke and heart failure. When left untreated for more than three days without a blood thinner, blood pooling and clots can occur in the left atrial appendage (LAA), which can then travel to the brain and cause a stroke.

AF currently affects more than five million Americans, but Los Robles was among the first in the nation to perform the latest in minimally-invasive cardiovascular surgery through the application of a new left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) device. Studies have shown the LAA to be the source of the majority of stroke-causing blood clots AF patients, and by closing it off, the risk of stroke may be reduced. With a pre-tied suture loop at the base of the LAA, the LAAO can immediately and permanently close the LAA and prevent blood clots from entering the bloodstream. This device has also proven to be a viable alternative for patients with intolerances to long-term medication.

Stroke Rehab Program

Patients recovering from a stroke may be admitted to the Rehabilitation Hospital, located on our East Campus. This hospital provides physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, pulmonary rehabilitation and cardiac rehabilitation. Additionally, outpatient services are provided in the hospital's gym. Los Robles Health System's Rehabilitation Hospital - East Campus can be found at the following address:

Los Robles Health System Rehabilitation Hospital - East Campus
150 Via Merida
Westlake Village, CA 91362

For more information about the stroke rehabilitation services available at our Rehabilitation Hospital, call (805) 497-2727.