Our Palo Alto center was the first designated Comprehensive Certified Stroke Center in the U.S., the highest level of certification. Our Pleasanton Stroke Center is a Stroke Center of Excellence.
- Renowned expertise in caring for patients who are at high risk of stroke or who have experienced a stroke. Go to Conditions Treated
- Superior quality and outcomes that exceed national measures for prompt diagnosis and intervention, offering emergency stroke treatment up to 24 hours after stroke onset. Go to Treatments
- Care delivered by a broad team of stroke specialists who design a treatment and prevention plan to meet your needs. Go to Your Care Team
- Access to clinical trials that advance our ability to predict stroke risks and improve healing. Go to Clinical Trials
- Comprehensive support services including an innovative neurohospitalist program, to help you and your family focus on health and healing. Go to Support Services
- Ease of access at two nationally recognized stroke centers in Palo Alto and Pleasanton in the East Bay, for excellent care close to home. Go to Accessing Care
Our Stroke Center team provides preventive care, diagnosis, and treatment for stroke and stroke-related issues. We provide the most comprehensive, specialized, and leading-edge treatments for every type of stroke, arteriovenous malformation (AVM), and aneurysm.
Stroke
Stroke is a condition in which brain cells suddenly die because of a lack of oxygen. A stroke can result from an obstruction in blood flow to the brain or a ruptured artery that feeds the brain. We treat:
- Ischemic stroke (blood clots)
- Hemorrhagic stroke (brain bleeds)
Stroke-induced brain injury
When blood supply to part of the brain is blocked or cut off, oxygen no longer reaches brain tissue. As a result, brain cells die rapidly. This brain cell death causes stroke-induced brain injury. The injury's severity can vary based on the location, duration, and severity of the stroke.
Cerebrovascular disorders
These disorders are related to disease of the blood vessels that supply the brain. We care for people with conditions including:
- Dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs), atypical connections between blood vessels
- Cavernous malformations (CMs)
- Intracranial stenosis, narrowed vessels in the brain
- Carotid artery disease, including moyamoya disease
- Developmental venous anomalies (DVAs) or venous angiomas
Stroke Awareness Saves Lives
Learn more about how stroke awareness can save your life or the life of a loved one.
Aneurysm
An aneurysm is an abnormal bulge or ballooning of a section of an artery. The artery wall weakens, increasing your risk of brain bleeding if the aneurysm leaks or ruptures. Bleeding from an aneurysm can be life-threatening. It can lead to a type of hemorrhagic stroke known as subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Arteriovenous malformation (AVM)
An arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is an abnormal set of connections between arteries and veins, creating a tangle of blood vessels. AVMs most often form in the brain and spine. They may cause neurologic symptoms or bleeding.
Transient ischemic attack (TIA)
Sometimes called a mini-stroke, a transient ischemic attack occurs when blood flow to a part of the brain stops for a brief time. Symptoms are similar to a stroke but typically last less than an hour before disappearing. A TIA increases your risk of having a stroke later.
The Stanford Health Care Stroke Center offers a full spectrum of support services for people who experience a stroke, in addition to nationally recognized diagnostic services and treatments.
The best stroke outcomes depend on getting treatment as fast as possible. Stanford Health Care’s Life Flight Program provides 24-hour emergency air transport so you can receive advanced care right away. Our emergency department is equipped with the latest tools and technologies to assess your needs in the event of a stroke.
Once a stroke occurs, our specialists rapidly identify the cause and focus your treatment on correcting that cause. Our first goal is to prevent further stroke. Then we work closely with you and your entire care team to enhance your health and work toward your recovery.
What to Expect
You will receive a thorough assessment to identify a potential stroke, the type, and the progression of any damage. We treat you with medicine, surgery, or both. Then we monitor you closely in our intensive care unit (ICU) until your condition becomes stable.
As you recover, you will typically move to the Inpatient Neurology or Neurosurgery unit for constant observation, treatment, and eventual rehabilitation. During your hospital stay, a dedicated, interdisciplinary team cares for you. Stanford Health Care's Neurohospitalist Program provides comprehensive care centered on your needs, with seamless transitions into each new stage.
Throughout your treatment, we answer the many questions you and your family will likely have as we prepare you to continue your rehabilitation and recovery.
Stroke Surgery
We offer surgical treatments including:
Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) removes clots and blockages from your carotid artery. It can prevent strokes in people who have carotid artery disease.
Interventional neuroradiology performs minimally invasive procedures using catheters (small tubes inserted into your blood vessels) to treat or prevent stroke. This technique can treat blood vessel diseases, tumors, and clots in the brain and spinal canal.
In this interventional neuroradiologic technique, your surgeon guides tiny coils into an aneurysm via a catheter. The procedure closes off the aneurysm from the surrounding circulation. By stopping blood flow to the aneurysm, we prevent the risk of hemorrhagic stroke in the future.
This surgical technique treats aneurysms or blocked cerebral arteries. Your surgeon provides a new route for blood to travel to the brain. The surgeon may graft another vessel to a cerebral artery to create a different source of blood flow to the brain.
In this endovascular treatment, your doctor introduces a “super glue” substance to the AVM via a tiny catheter. The substance reduces the size of the arteriovenous malformation and creates an avenue for your doctor to treat the AVM with another microsurgical procedure or radiation if needed.
Nonsurgical Stroke Treatments
In addition to surgery, we use medications and other therapies to prevent and treat stroke and help you recover. Your nonsurgical care may include:
Emergency medications to treat stroke include thrombolytics, which help dissolve blood clots to reestablish the blood flow to the brain.
If you have a high risk for stroke, we prescribe medications including anticoagulants/antiplatelets (blood thinners) and antihypertensives, as well as medications to reduce cholesterol levels. These medications help control stroke risk factors.
Rehabilitation is a critical part of recovery to help you return to independent living after a stroke. We work with you to regain or build new capabilities in self-care, mobility, communication, and cognitive and social skills.
Whole-Person Care
Your wellness plays a role in the success of your treatment. We offer a range of support services to assist you and your family throughout your care with us.
Programs and Services
In addition to the diagnostic and therapeutic services offered by the Stanford Stroke Center, we offer a full spectrum of allied patient care services through our Rehabilitation Services. Your resources include:
We design a treatment and rehabilitation plan based on your unique needs. Depending on the area of the brain affected by the stroke, physical and mental damage may be mild or severe. Effects may range from dizziness and confusion to sensory loss or paralysis.
Your treatment and rehabilitation plan helps you regain function if you’ve experienced:
- Hemiparesis (paralysis on one side of the body)
- Aphasia (loss of ability to speak or understand language)
- Spatial-perceptual deficits
- Learning difficulties
- Memory loss
- Behavioral or emotional changes
- Loss of motor skills
After a mild stroke, or if medical therapy was very effective, you may need little or no rehabilitation. Most stroke patients, however, benefit from some type of rehabilitation. Stanford Health Care offers a wide variety of rehabilitation services to help you recover from a stroke. You may receive inpatient services or outpatient therapies, depending on your specific needs.
The ultimate goal of rehabilitation is to support you as you return to as independent a lifestyle as possible. Because of tremendous advances in stroke treatment, along with ever-improving rehabilitation techniques, the outlook for people who have had a stroke has never been more hopeful.
Our rehabilitation program features a caring, interdisciplinary team that may include:
- Doctors
- Physical, occupational, and recreational therapists
- Speech-language pathologists
- Neuropsychologists
- Clinical social workers and case managers
- Dietitians
- Rehabilitation nurses
Stanford Health Care offers the Stanford Stroke Support Group in conjunction with the Pacific Stroke Association. In the group, you have the opportunity to increase your knowledge of diagnostic and treatment options and develop problem-solving and coping skills.
The support group provides a forum where you and your family can share experiences and concerns about rehabilitation, depression, and other daily concerns. We encourage all patients, at any stage of treatment, to participate. Contact the Neuroscience Supportive Care Program at 650-721-8500 or NSCP@stanfordhealthcare.org for more details.
If you or a loved one has experienced disability as a result of stroke, many community resources can help you cope and learn to provide support and encouragement. The Stanford Stroke Center can provide you with an up-to-date list of community resources. Contact the Stroke Center at 650-723-6469 or strokecenter@med.stanford.edu.
Comprehensive Stroke Center
The Joint Commission has certified the Stanford Health Care Stroke Center in Palo Alto as a Comprehensive Stroke Center. Stanford Health Care was the first hospital in the country to earn this certification, in 2012. Our Pleasanton Stroke Center is a Stroke Center of Excellence.
The Joint Commission is the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. The Joint Commission operates the accreditation program in collaboration with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Comprehensive Stroke Center certification means that we deliver rapid, high-quality care encompassing every treatment need for people at risk of or experiencing stroke. Our care options include:
- Nonsurgical treatments for stroke prevention
- Advanced surgical techniques
- Innovative interventional neuroradiology procedures
- Stroke rehabilitation
- Stroke support group
- Access to promising treatments in clinical trials
The Join Commission Gold Seal
Quality and Outcomes
Stanford Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) continues to provide major contributions to worldwide research efforts aimed at understanding the complex mechanisms of stroke injury, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention. Our CSC program has:
- Pioneered major advances in medical therapies, neurosurgical techniques, interventional neurological procedures, and advanced imaging
- Provided care for more than 27,000 inpatients with cerebrovascular disorders
- Participated in over 290 clinical stroke trials
- Been designated the first Comprehensive Certified Stroke Center nationwide by The Joint Commission in 2012
- Expanded stroke and acute care neurology expertise via telemedicine
Our program provides evidence-based, advanced comprehensive care for complex stroke patients. Every stroke patient's hospitalization is evaluated for timeliness and appropriateness of care to improve outcomes and experience.
The following are reported metrics for data collection period: September 2020 to August 2022.
|
1
PROCEDURE |
1
NUMBER OF |
1
# Patients with Complication |
1
Complication |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
Diagnostic Cerebral Angiogram |
1
912 |
1
0 |
1
0% |
|
1
PROCEDURE |
1
NUMBER OF |
1
# Patients with Complication |
1
Complication |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
External Ventricular Drain Placement |
1
166 |
1
2 |
1
1.2% |
|
1
PROCEDURE |
1
NUMBER OF |
1
# Patients with |
1
Complication |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1
Carotid Endarterectomy & Carotid Artery Stent (Includes symptomatic and asymptomatic) |
1
165 |
1
2 |
1
1.2% |
QUALITY PROCESS METRICS
Stanford Health Care receives patients from over 50 hospitals. Most of the transfers are from Northern California, the Central Valley, and Central Coast. (Includes transfers for ischemic, intracerebral, and subarachnoid hemorrhages)
|
1
# Transfer Patients for FY 2021 |
1
# Transfer Patients of FY 2022 |
|---|---|
|
1
323 |
1
324 |
IV TENECTEPLASE (TNK) ADMINISTRATION
TNK is a thrombolytic agent, a “clot buster” medication, used in the treatment of acute ischemic strokes. TNK restores blood flow to the brain through the breakdown of blood clots. The benefits of TNK are time sensitive. The American Heart Association goal for TNK administration is 60 minutes or less from the time of emergency department (ED) arrival.
|
1
Best time overall from ED arrival to TNK administration* |
1
15 minutes |
|
1
Median time from ED arrival to TNK administration* |
1
46 minutes |
Mechanical Thrombectomy is an intravascular procedure used in the treatment of acute ischemic strokes. This procedure is used to re-establish (revascularize) blood flow to the brain by removing a blood clot in the artery.
|
1
# Patients transferred for evaluation of mechanical thrombectomy treatment for ischemic strokes (FY2021): |
1
# Patients transferred for evaluation of mechanical thrombectomy treatment for ischemic strokes (FY2022): |
|---|---|
|
1
156 |
1
149 |
|
1
Best time from hospital arrival to revascularization * |
1
49 minutes |
|
1
Median time from ED arrival by ambulance to CT imaging * |
1
15 minutes |
The Stanford Health Care goal for arrival time to CT imaging is 20 minutes.
*(FY2021/FY2022)
Innovation Through Clinical Research
Stanford Health Care Stroke Center actively participates in groundbreaking research and clinical trials to evaluate new and better ways to diagnose, treat, and manage autonomic nervous system disorders. Participating in a trial may give you access to experimental therapies that are not available otherwise.
Clinical Trials
Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate a new medical approach, device, drug, or other treatment. As a Stanford Health Care patient, you may have access to the latest, advanced clinical trials.
Open trials refer to studies that are currently recruiting participants or that may recruit participants in the near future. Closed trials are not currently enrolling, but similar studies may open in the future.
Your Circle of Care
A diagnosis of an autonomic condition—and the changes it may bring—can be unsettling. We offer you and your caregivers the personalized support you need at every step. Your team listens to you and develops a plan for your situation. And you’ll work with the same team from diagnosis throughout treatment, so we can get to know you and your needs.
Each person’s experience is unique, which is why we provide personalized care. Our team tailors treatment and supportive services to meet your individual needs.
Your Doctors
Vascular Neurologists
A vascular neurologist is a medical doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating, and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system. They treat conditions such as stroke.
View All {0} Stroke And Vascular Neurologists »Neurosurgeons
Neurosurgeons specialize in treating stroke through traditional (open) and minimally invasive surgery and CyberKnife radiosurgery, a noninvasive form of radiation therapy.
View All {0} Neurosurgeons »Interventional Neuroradiologist
This medical specialty is also called neurointerventional surgery. Interventional neuroradiology is a subspecialty within radiology. It also involves catheters and radiology to diagnose and treat neurological conditions and diseases.
View All {0} Interventional Neuroradiologists »Advanced Practice Providers (APPs)
Our skilled nurse practitioners specialize in caring for people at risk of stroke or who are recovering from a stroke. They see patients independently and occasionally alongside your doctor. APPs can give you a thorough exam, write prescriptions, and help prevent or treat any issues. Our APPs meet weekly to discuss patient needs.
View All {0} Advanced Practice Provider Doctors »Extended Care Team
Nurses and Nurse Coordinators (RNs)
Multidisciplinary care coordinators are registered nurses who provide one-on-one support throughout your care journey. They help you navigate from your first contact with us to follow-up care, assessing your needs, answering your questions, making referrals, coordinating appointments, and providing education.
Care Coordinators
Care coordinators provide you with information and assistance before and during your appointment.
- Medical assistants take you to your exam room after you check in for your appointments. They check your vital signs before your doctor sees you.
- New patient coordinators contact you before your first appointment and help you prepare by providing the information you need to know and what to bring with you.
- Patient access representatives greet you at the front desk and register you for your appointments.
Research Coordinators
If you qualify for a clinical trial, our research coordinators guide you through the process. They educate you about what to expect during the study, answer your questions, and schedule your appointments.
Speech Pathologists
These specialists are experts in communication. The speech pathologists with the Stanford Medicine Neuroscience program have added training to help people with various neurological conditions that may affect their ability to speak or swallow.
Neuro Care Services
Your wellness is our top priority. As part of your care, we design a wellness plan to support you and your family before, during, and after treatment.
We offer a wide array of support services to help you to feel your best. Contact our Neuro Care Services for your personal support plan.
We make access to care as simple as possible. We anticipate what you need and provide support when you need it. Our network of locations puts our services within your reach. User-friendly digital health tools help you stay connected with your care team. We accept most insurance plans and offer discounted transportation, short-stay options, and international travel and translation services. We help make sense of the details, so you can make decisions that are right for you.
At the Stanford Health Care Stroke Center, we make accessing care easy and convenient. We make every effort to coordinate your appointments so that you can see multiple providers, as needed, during a single visit.
If you or someone you know experiences symptoms of stroke, seek emergency help immediately. CALL 911—do not wait!
For Referring Physicians
PHYSICIAN HELPLINE
Fax: 650-320-9443
Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.
Stanford Health Care provides comprehensive services to refer and track patients, as well as the latest information and news for physicians and office staff. For help with all referral needs and questions, visit Referral Information.
You may also submit a web referral or complete a referral form and fax it to 650-320-9443 or email the Referral Center at ReferralCenter@stanfordhealthcare.org.