Revolutionary new stroke treatment improves recovery and saves lives
When their first-line therapy, a powerful blood-thinning medication called tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), could not dissolve the blood clots in patient Stefan Reisch’s brain, the doctors at the Comprehensive Stroke Center at the University of California San Diego tried an innovative approach called a stent retriever.
Instead of dissolving blood clots in the brain, the stent retriever therapy captures the clot and pulls it out of the brain. A catheter is placed into a blood vessel in the groin and guided up into the brain through the blocked artery. Then a wire mesh opens, grabbing onto and removing the blood clot while the patient is still having a stroke. Experts are calling this procedure the most major advance in stroke treatment in two decades.
In April, the journal Radiology published findings that highlight the added importance of removing clots in a timely manner. Researchers examined data on patients treated with both tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), the standard in stroke treatment, and stent retrievers and found that restoration of blood flow within 2.5 hours of stroke onset was associated with minimal or no disability in 91 percent of patients. The injection of tPA, which has been the standard care for stroke patients for 20 years, is usually most effective when given within 4.5 hours after the first symptoms.
The 43-year-old, California resident Reisch said that he immediately began to regain feeling while still undergoing the procedure. On an interview with NBC News, he said that he was awake throughout the process and the doctors were telling him what to do.
In the United States, stroke is the fifth highest cause of death and a leading cause of adult disability. According to the American Heart Association, roughly 795,000 Americans suffer it every year.
Currently, stent retriever therapy is only offered in just a few hundred hospitals across the United States, including all 96 Comprehensive Stroke Centers accredited by the American Heart Association.
Source: NBC News
