Question

What are potential causes of hypoxia that could cause the CVA?

Answer 1

Hypoxia can be explained in a simple term that is lack of oxygen in the environment or insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain, that causes breathing problem, limited oxygen in the environment causes reduced brain function. Hypoxia following stroke is common and is often attributed to pneumonia, aspiration and respiratory muscle dysfunction, with sleep apnoea syndromes, pulmonary embolism and cardiac failure being less common but important treatable causes. Brain cells are very sensitive to a lack of oxygen. Some brain cells start dying less than 5 minutes after their oxygen supply disappears. As a result, brain hypoxia can rapidly cause severe brain damage or death.

Sometimes this hypoxia may result when someone is drowning, choking, suffocating, or in cardiac arrest. Brain injury, stroke, and carbon monoxide poisoning are other possible causes of brain hypoxia. The condition can be serious because brain cells need an uninterrupted flow of oxygen to function properly.