Determinants of mortality in stroke patients with right brain damage.

Stroke is the world's second leading cause of mortality and long-term disability. Damage to the nondominant right brain has distinct clinical characteristics. The resultant cardiovascular and autonomic dysfunction peculiar to right hemispheric stroke can adversely affect the short- and long-term outcome of stroke victims. Blood flow characteristics to the right hemisphere may also put the right brain at more risk for embolic and silent infarcts.