[Ischemic cerebrovascular stroke of arterial origin in the child]. / Les accidents vasculaires cérébraux ischémiques d'origine artérielle chez l'enfant.

Comparing stroke in children with stroke in adults can provide interesting information because age and cerebral plasticity induce specific clinical features and outcome. Arterial ischemic strokes are the most frequent in childhood although the problem is not one of arteriosclerosis. Arterial dissection, Moya-Moya syndrome, and cardioembolic and thrombogenic events induced by hemoglobin diseases and hyperhomocyteinemia must be detected at the first event. In some cases, onset is marked by head trauma or an infectious syndrome. The important feature is that outcome is better than in adults and is marked by onset of hemidystonia, partial epilepsy. Aphasia is benign if stroke arises before the child has learned to write.