Patent ID: 8406869

Claim:
A method for treatment, comprising: identifying that a subject has suffered from an adverse cerebrovascular event, excluding Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease; responsively to the identifying, applying, beginning at least three hours after the event, electrical stimulation to a site of the subject selected from the group consisting of: a sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG), a greater palatine nerve, a lesser palatine nerve, a sphenopalatine nerve, a communicating branch between a maxillary nerve and an SPG, an otic ganglion, an afferent fiber going into the otic ganglion, an efferent fiber going out of the otic ganglion, an infraorbital nerve, a vidian nerve, a greater superficial petrosal nerve, and a lesser deep petrosal nerve; and configuring the stimulation to excite nervous tissue of the site at a strength (a) sufficient to induce at least one neuroprotective occurrence selected from the group consisting of: an increase in cerebral blood flow (CBF) of the subject, and a release of one or more neuroprotective substances, and (b) insufficient to induce a substantial increase in permeability of a blood-brain barrier (BBB) of the subject.