Question

A home health nurse is assigned to a client who was recently discharged from a rehabilitation center after experiencing a right-hemispheric cerebrovascular accident (CVA). Which of the following neurologic deficits should the nurse expect to find when assessing the client?

A) Expressive aphasia.
B) Visual spatial deficits.
C) Left hemianopsia.
D) Right hemiplegia.
E) One-sided neglect.

Answer 1

A home health nurse assessing a client with a right-hemispheric cerebrovascular accident should expect to find visual spatial deficits, left hemianopsia, and one-sided neglect. Expressive aphasia and right hemiplegia are less likely as they are commonly associated with left-hemispheric damage.

Step-by-step explanation:

When assessing a client who has experienced a right-hemispheric cerebrovascular accident (CVA), a home health nurse should expect to find certain neurological deficits. A CVA affects brain function depending on the area of the brain where blood flow has been compromised. For a right-hemispheric stroke, the deficits can include:

• Visual spatial deficits: Difficulty in perceiving the relationship between objects or space.
• Left hemianopsia: Loss of vision in half of the visual field on the left side.
• One-sided neglect: Failure to attend to or respond to stimuli on the side opposite of the brain lesion, commonly the left side.
• Right hemiplegia: Paralysis on the body's right side. Since the left brain controls the right side of the body, this would not be expected with a right-hemispheric stroke.

Expressive aphasia, which is a loss of the ability to produce language (usually associated with damage to Broca's area in the frontal lobe), is more often related to damage in the left hemisphere and is not typically a result of right-hemispheric damage.