The clinical ischemic penumbra

Abstract

The concept of the ischemic penumbra has proven to be an extremely valuable construct for both experimental studies of ischemic stroke and for the development of tools for the management of patients with this disorder. Indeed, a major driver in the development of treatments for ischemic stroke is the belief that in many acute stroke patients, there is a region of salvageable brain that is threatened with permanent injury. This region of brain corresponds to the ischemic penumbra originally described in experimental stroke studies. The clinical condition does not strictly meet the-criteria as originally defined by experimentalists. Nonetheless, the concept is clinically valuable, and a suitable modification of its definition applicable to the clinical condition is appropriate. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.