Current status of hemorrhagic stroke and acute nonthrombolytic ischemic stroke treatment.

Strokes still cause death every 3.3 minutes in the United States and are a leading cause of disability. Although the thrombolytic tissue plasminogen activator has been available for the treatment of ischemic stroke since 1996, no neuroprotectant acute stroke treatment strategy to preserve dysfunctional neurons in the ischemic penumbra has shown efficacy in clinical trials. New approaches for the treatment of hemorrhagic stroke and changes in the design of acute ischemic stroke trials provide a more optimistic picture for future stroke treatments.