Hemorrhagic stroke involves bleeding within the brain, which damages nearby brain tissue. See also:

• Hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage
• Intracerebral hemorrhage

Brain bleeding; Brain hemorrhage; Stroke - hemorrhagic

Hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain. The brain is very sensitive to bleeding and damage can occur very rapidly, either because of the presence of the blood itself, or because the fluid increases pressure on the brain and harms it by pressing it against the skull.

Bleeding irritates the brain tissue, causing swelling. The surrounding tissues of the brain resist the expansion of the bleeding, which is finally contained by forming a mass (hematoma). Both swelling and hematoma will compress and displace normal brain tissue.

• < Page
1 2
• >

Next Section

Hemorrhagic stroke Symptoms

Review Date: 09/10/2006
Reviewed By: Daniel Kantor, MD, Director of the Comprehensive MS Center, Neuroscience Institute, University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, FL. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)