Hemispheric Differences in Ischemic Stroke: Is Left-Hemisphere Stroke More Common?

Left-hemispheric ischemic strokes appear to be more frequent and often have a worse outcome than their right-hemispheric counterparts. The incidence of large-vessel ischemic strokes is higher in the left middle cerebral artery distribution, contributing to these hemispheric differences. The hemispheric differences exhibit a nonsignificant trend when strokes in the middle cerebral artery distribution are excluded from the analysis.