Stroke treatment needs to be fast and precise. No matter where you are in Louisville, Southern Indiana or the broader region when stroke symptoms occur, Norton Neuroscience Institute is ready to provide award-winning care.
Norton Healthcare operates the area’s largest stroke system. At its core is Norton Brownsboro Hospital, which is certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association — the highest designation available.
More stroke patients and others with neurological conditions trust their care to the specialists of Norton Neuroscience Institute than any other provider in the area.
The Norton Healthcare emergency stroke teams stand ready around the clock every day of the year to activate a well-rehearsed response when emergency medical technicians alert them to an incoming suspected stroke or when a patient enters an emergency department.
A precise diagnosis of the type of stroke and where in the brain the stroke is happening is critical to restoring blood flow to the brain quickly and giving the patient the best chance of recovery. Most strokes are ischemic, meaning they are caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain or inside the brain. The other type is a brain-bleed stroke, or hemorrhagic stroke. Each requires a different treatment approach.
Many ischemic strokes can be treated with a powerful medication that breaks apart a blood clot.
Others require minimally invasive endovascular procedures to insert a tiny tool through the blood vessels and thread it up to the site of the clot or the source of the bleeding. The tools clear the blockage and can retrieve the clot from the body or repair any broken blood vessels.
The emergency stroke team needs to determine the type of stroke and rule out a brain tumor, reaction to medication and other possible causes of your symptoms.
Newly installed biplane X-ray technology at Norton Brownsboro Hospital provides high-resolution imaging that allow surgeons to better see the source of a stroke. The technology has two X-ray tubes that rotate around the patient while on the operating room table to capture images that are combined digitally to produce a 3D, finely detailed picture of the blood vessels.
Norton Brownsboro Hospital’s two hybrid biplane rooms were the second and third in the country with such technology.
Knowing what to do — and what not to do — if someone is having a stroke can have a lasting impact on their recovery.