Stroke is an emergency state requiring immediate diagnosis and treatment. It is recommended that all acute stroke patients should be treated in a stroke unit. Thrombolytic therapy proved to be the most effective treatment. Although intravenous thrombolysis is available, only 10% of the patients are treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) in the best Polish centres. Statistically, in scale of the country, the percentage of patients treated that way is no more than 1. Recently there has been a dynamic development of surgical neurology, which aims at surgical treatment of ischemic stroke including intraarterial thrombolysis, mechanical recanalisation of arteries (embolectomy), carotid endarectomy, remodeling, angioplasty and stenting. There is, however, lack of reliable research results confirming efficiency of these methods. According to recommendations of experts from the National Programme of Prevention and Treatment of Stroke POLKARD surgical stroke care is rarely advised. Surgical treatment is recommended in specific cases of ischemic stroke (malignant middle cerebral artery infarct, large spaceoccupying cerebellum infarct) and in some cases of intracerebral hemorrhage. Surgical treatment is restricted to patients with superficial intracerebral hematoma (cases with localization in basal ganglia), cases of rapid decrease of consciousness or neurological deterioration. Another issue is treatment of subarachnoid hemorhage connected with arteriovenous malformation where neurosurgical operations are more advised. In cases of aneurismal rupture neurosurgical clip is the method of choice.