News

New stroke treatment boasts of dramatic recovery results

Doctors say a device used to pull damaging blood clots out of the brains of stroke patients could be revolutionary.

The most common type of stroke occurs when a clot blocks an artery leading to the brain, killing off millions of brain cells every minute blood can't get through.%

INLINE

%

Those patients are often treated with a drug that helps dissolve the clot.

But in some cases -- a stent retriever can also be used. It's threaded through blood vessels into the brain, grabbing the clot, pulling it out of the body.

In a new study of about 200 patients, doctors in Canada say 91-percent of those who were able to get the stent retriever within two and a half hours had minimal or no disability.

Each additional hour a patient waited increased the likelihood they'd be left with some kind of brain damage.

Only select hospitals in the US are equipped to use the stent retriever, including two in Pittsburgh:  Allegheny General Hospital and UPMC Shadyside.

Dr. Sahil Parikh, from the UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, urges people to find a center close to them.  "Not every hospital that is certified to treat stroke with clot busters will have a 24 hours a day coverage for this kind of procedural need," says Dr, Parikh, "And so there will be a need to expand the workforce."

You can search for the center closest to you by using the Stents for Stroke website:  http://news.heart.org/stentsforstroke/

Quick treatment is crucial.

Doctors say it's important to call 9-1-1 as soon as stroke symptoms appear, like facial drooping, arm weakness, and difficulty speaking.