Difference Between Aneurysm and Stroke

Aneurysm is caused by the ballooning of a localized area of a blood vessel.  The bulge or ballooning of the vessels is usually found at the bottom or base of the brain in the area that is called the circle of Willis.  Aortic aneurysms are found in the left ventricle of the heart.  A stroke, however, is referred to before as the cerebrovascular accident that will cause the debilitation of brain functions largely because of the lack of blood flow to the brain.  Once the area is affected, it leads to the incapability of the brain to send out signals to the other parts of the body for it to function properly.  When it comes to the treatment, a stroke is often seen as a first case emergency while an aneurysm is not, unless, of course, the bulge veins burst and will cause internal bleeding.  In fact, experts say that for some strokes to occur, an aneurysm has to burst in order to cause it.

Aneurysms are generally classified according to the type it has.  An example would be the true or false aneurysm types.  The true types are when the inner layers of the blood vessel have bulged out within the confines.  In this type, the inner aneurysm is usually surrounded by inner layers.  The false types are those that do not primarily create that distortion compared to the true ones.  Another type of classification for the aneurysm would be according to its morphology.  This means that it can be either through fusiform, which is a narrow cylinder and a �saccular�, which takes the form of a sac.  Other classifications for the condition would be the location and the underlying condition.  The condition of a stroke, on the other hand, is only classified into two types, which are the ischemic stroke and the hemorrhagic stroke.

Another main difference between the two is that an aneurysm can take place in several areas of the human body.  These areas include the major artery from the heart, the brain, in the leg area behind the knee, the intestine and the artery in the spleen area of the system.  Meanwhile, a stroke can only happen on one part of the human body, which is the brain.  When it comes to symptoms, aneurysm would often show pain and swelling on the affected part or parts of the body while a stroke would usually indicate numbness and weakness of one side of the body.  When it comes to treatment, when an aneurysm is diagnosed it has that chance of recovery before it ruptures by  surgical operations.  On the other side, the stroke is only treated with physical therapy when the person is already affected with it.

Summary:
1. An aneurysm is caused by the ballooning of the blood vessels in the heart or in the brain while a stroke is caused by the lack of blood flow to the brains.
2. An aneurysm is usually classified according to various types like its location or underlying condition while a stroke only has two types.
3. An aneurysm can take place in other parts of the body like the heart, the leg, and the spleen while a stroke only takes place in the brain.