ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the ways in which cerebrovascular disease may affect young people. It discusses how the investigation and management of stroke differs in the young compared to the elderly. Sickle-cell disease confers a high risk of stroke throughout the patient's lifetime and is a particularly important cause of stroke during childhood. Children may develop stroke either as a direct consequence of the structural abnormality or as a complication of surgical intervention to treat it. Abnormalities of the cerebral vessels, either inherited or acquired, may predispose to stroke in childhood. Dissection of the carotid and vertebral arteries is a common cause of stroke in young people, accounting for about 10% of all strokes in those fewer than 45 years of age. There is a paucity of evidence to guide then management of patients with stroke secondary to arterial dissection: most guidelines recommend anticoagulation for between three and six months until recanalisation occurs.
