What is your approach to counseling older patients and their families regarding expected recovery of aphasia following a large hemispheric stroke?  

There is no precise answer for this question. Every patient follows their own course after a stroke. The size of the infarct and the age of the patient will affect the prognosis. Older patients and those with larger infarcts tend not to have as much recovery. The improvement of aphasia can proceed o...

The general approach I take is the same as with all stroke recovery conversations. First, assuming the patient survives (10-15% mortality at 30 days when considering all ischemic stroke), all patients will improve from stroke, and the critical issue is to what degree. Recovery of function to the lev...