The Evolving Concepts of Apoplexy and Brain Softening
Abstract
Paralysis, affecting motion or sensation, is a condition known from immemorial time. Apoplexy was the generic term used to indicate its cerebral origin until Wepfer established a correlation between apoplexy and cerebral haemorrhage in 1658. During the 17th and 18th centuries, its pathophysiology was discussed, and several hypotheses were suggested, but it was only during the 19th century that cerebral ischaemia and infarction concepts appeared and became recognised as the more prevalent form of stroke. This chapter deals with the history of the emergence and acknowledgment of cerebrovascular brain insult’s physiopathology.
