Pediatric Stroke Care

Most people assume strokes only happen later in life, but children can have strokes, too. Pediatric stroke survivors may be left with lifelong disabilities that can affect school, sports and families. Despite this, pediatric strokes are under-recognized and diagnosis is often delayed due to a lack of awareness of stroke symptoms and difficulty obtaining fast brain imaging in children.

In order to address this problem, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health has developed a multidisciplinary pediatric stroke program with a team of specialists who have the necessary experience and knowledge to skillfully diagnose, treat and manage strokes in children. All members of our team have the shared goals of delivering around-the-clock comprehensive care during an acute stroke, supporting patients and their parents in making informed treatment and management decisions, and providing appropriate rehabilitation options after a stroke. Children have strokes for very different reasons than adults, and a multidisciplinary group of providers with expertise in this area is essential to providing young stroke patients with the very best care.

Our pediatric stroke team is made up of leading experts in a wide array of specialties, including neurology, neurosurgery, neurointerventional radiology, neuroradiology, neurogenetics, hematology, cardiology and neuropsychology. We work closely with the Stanford Stroke Center, one of the busiest and most successful stroke programs in the nation, to provide swift around-the-clock access to treatment options for acute pediatric strokes. Our priority is to ensure open lines of communication with each other, with the patient and with the patient’s family to ensure the best possible stroke treatment for the child.