Recently had stroke from pfo--had pfo closed--any one have any experience as to how long numbness will last?

Pfo is hole in heart that allows unfiltered blood into brain or other organ--causing stroke--as it did me causing numbness in arm and leg--when should this numbness go away?

a Stroke is a cerbrovascular accident and as such brain tissue has died. Some nerological defects will be Permenant. Some effects will dimish as the brain attempts to rewire itself. Physical theraphy will speed the process up.

The foramen ovale is a small hole located in the atrial septum that is used during fetal circulation to speed up the travel of blood through the heart. When in the womb,a baby does not use it's own lungs for oxygen-rich blood, it relies on the mother to provide oxygen rich blood from the placenta through the umbilical cord to the fetus. Therefore, blood can travel from the veins to the right side of the baby's heart and cross to the left side of the heart through the foramen ovale and skip the trip to the baby's lungs

Normally the foramen ovale closes at birth when increased blood pressure on the left side of the heart forces the opening to close.

If the atrial septum does not close properly, it is called a patent foramen ovale. This type of defect generally works like a flap valve, only opening during certain conditions when there is more pressure inside the chest. This increased pressure occurs when people strain while having a bowel movement, cough, or sneeze.

If the pressure is great enough, blood may travel from the right atrium to the left atrium. If there is a clot or particles in the blood traveling in the right side of the heart, it can cross the PFO, enter the left atrium, and travel out of the heart and to the brain (causing a stroke) or into a coronary artery (causing a heart attack).

The prevalence of PFO is about 25 percent in the general population. In patients who have stroke of unknown cause (cryptogenic stroke), the prevalence of PFO increases to about 40 percent. This is especially true in patients who have had a stroke at age less than 55 years. (http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/conten...

A PFO can be associated with atrial septal aneurysm, which is characterized by excessive mobility of the atrial septum.

Stroke and PFO: About 40 percent of patients who have an ischemic stroke have no known cause (called cryptogenic stroke). PFO is present and associated with an increase in stroke in about 40 percent of cases. The most common symptoms of stroke are:

weakness or numbness of the face, arm or leg on one side of the body
loss of vision or dimming (like a curtain falling) in one or both eyes
loss of speech, difficulty talking or understanding what others are saying
sudden, severe headache with no known cause
loss of balance, unstable walking, usually combined with another symptom