In view of the low risk of a TIA or stroke affecting driving, private vehicle drivers should not drive for two weeks, and commercial vehicle drivers should not drive for four weeks after a TIA.
You must stop driving for at least 1 month after a transient ischaemic attack ( TIA ) or mini-stroke. This includes amaurosis fugax or retinal artery fugax. You can restart only when your doctor tells you it is safe.
Driving after a TIA
Although a TIA should not have a long-term impact on your daily activities, you must stop driving immediately. If your doctor is happy that you have made a good recovery and there are no lasting effects after 1 month, you can start driving again.
If you drive a car or motorbike and you had a single transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke with no brain surgery or seizures, you can usually start driving again after one calendar month.
The risk of subsequent stroke after a transient ischemic attack is between 2% and 17% within the first 90 days after the initial event.
Symptoms of a TIA come on suddenly. You may feel perfectly fine one minute and then suddenly develop difficulty speaking or moving one side of your body. Sometimes the symptoms will come and go several times in a short period of time.
In a previously reported study, 31% of TIA patients showed an acute infarction visualized by MRI including DWI. A strong association was found between neurological symptoms, speech dysfunction and weakness and an evidence of acute infarction by MRI including DWI (Al-Khaled and Eggers, 2013).
The good news is you absolutely can live a full life after a mini-stroke. Here's how. Like strokes, mini-strokes occur when a blockage occurs in a major artery to your brain, disrupting the flow of blood and oxygen. The difference is in a mini-stroke, the disruption lasts only minutes, so there's no permanent damage.
A TIA has the same origins as that of an ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke. In an ischemic stroke, a clot blocks the blood supply to part of the brain. In a TIA , unlike a stroke, the blockage is brief, and there is no permanent damage.
A transient ischaemic attack (TIA or mini-stroke) is the same as a stroke, but the symptoms last a short time. You get stroke symptoms because a clot is blocking the blood supply in your brain. When the clot moves away, the stroke symptoms stop.
TIAs are often an early warning sign that a person is at risk of stroke. About 1 in 3 people who has a TIA goes on to experience a subsequent stroke. The risk of stroke is especially high within 48 hours after a TIA .
The blockage in the blood vessels responsible for most TIAs is usually caused by a blood clot that's formed elsewhere in your body and travelled to the blood vessels supplying the brain. It can also be caused by pieces of fatty material or air bubbles.
If you have had a TIA or an ischaemic stroke you will almost always need to take blood-thinners. There are two types of blood thinners: Antiplatelet medication. Antiplatelet medicines stop tiny blood cells called platelets from sticking together and forming a blood clot.
However, a TIA does not last as long as a stroke. The effects only last for a few minutes or hours and fully resolve within 24 hours.
Taking blood-thinning medication is often one of the main ways you can reduce your risk of a stroke if you have had a stroke or TIA, or have a heart condition. By reducing the risk of clots forming, they give you a much greater chance of recovering and staying healthy after a stroke.
TIA reduces survival by 4% in the first year and by 20% within 9 years. TIA has a minimal effect on mortality in patients <50 years but heralds significant reduction in life expectancy in those >65 years.
Your provider might prescribe aspirin and clopidogrel to be taken together for about a month after the TIA . Research shows that taking these two drugs together in certain situations reduces the risk of a future stroke more than taking aspirin alone.
Fatigue can happen after any type of stroke, and you can have severe fatigue after a relatively mild stroke or a TIA. Even if you have made a full physical recovery, or your stroke was some time ago, fatigue can still be a problem.
An MRI scan is most often used. This type of scan uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to create an image of your brain.
Some people might have more than one TIA and it is possible to have several TIAs in a short space of time (for example, several TIAs within a day).
Always treat a TIA as seriously as you would a stroke. "Even though the symptoms resolve, there might be damage to the brain, so you need to see a neurologist," Dr. Rost advises.
The best way to help prevent a TIA is to eat a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and not smoke or drink too much alcohol.
Around 70%reported that their TIA had long- term effects including memory loss, poor mobility, problems with speech and difficulty in understanding. 60%of people stated that their TIA had affected them emotionally. There is no way to tell whether a person is having a TIA or a stroke when the symptoms first start.
Call 9-1-1 immediately if any of these signs of stroke appear: Numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg; Confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech; Trouble seeing in one or both eyes; Trouble walking, dizziness, or problems with balance; severe headache with no known cause.