Introduction:

Stroke is an important public health issue. Stroke in the young is defined as the one who presents between 15 and 45 years old. The primary objective of this study is to describe the epidemiological, clinical, imaging, etiopathogenic and therapeutic characteristics of stroke in young patients.

Materials and Methods:

This was a retrospective and descriptive study of a cohort of patients who presented with stroke in the young assisted at the Hospital de Clínicas in Montevideo in the period between June 2007 and June 2014.

Results:

We have included fifty patients which accounted for 5.6% of all stroke in the period covered by the study. The mean age was 33 yo. As for nature, 64% were ischemic and 36% hemorrhagic. According to the TOAST classification, the most common etiology was cryptogenetic (34%). Regarding the etiology of intracerebral hemorrhages, half corresponded to vascular malformations.

Discussion:

The proportion of stroke in young people was somewhat lower than that described in other communications. Compared with stroke in all ages, cerebral hemorrhage increases its proportion, although the ischemic nature continues to predominate. The most common cause of ischemic stroke was cryptogenetic, followed by cardioembolism and unusual causes. Arterial dissections matched the prevalence of atheromatosis of large vessels. This fact is similar to that described by most authors.

Conclusions:

Although the most prevalent etiology of parenchymal hemorrhage were vascular malformations, the number of hypertensive hematomas was not negligible at these ages.

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