Doctors at MIOT International employed a new technique to treat a 43-year old patient, Kalavathi, who was struck by a stroke. They performed a procedure – called mechanical thrombectomy – to remove a blood clot in a major blood vessel in the patient’s brain and successfully the reserve the damage caused by Stroke.
Thus far, the procedure to remove a brain clot has been the IV clot-buster method. These methods are slower and have met with only limited success as attested by the fact that most people believe that severe strokes cannot be treated.
What is Stroke?
A stroke is caused by an obstruction – within or outside the brain. In order to function properly, your brain needs an uninterrupted supply of oxygen and glucose. Any disruption in this supply of blood and oxygen to the brain can cause a stroke.
Stroke typically presents with:
- loss of sensory and motor function on one side of the body
- blurred vision
- unsteady gait
- slurred speech
- confusion
- sudden, severe headache
What is mechanical thrombectomy?
As MIOT Head of the Department Endovascular Interventions Dr. V. Murali explains, mechanical thrombectomy is a better option as it is able to restore 79% post-stroke mobility in the patient. This is twice as effective as the commonly-employed methods of dissolving or aspirating the blocks in the large blood vessels of the brain.
Mechanical thrombectomy is a minimally-invasive technique where a special device – a stent retriever – is inserted to trap the clot exactly where it is and extract it without open surgery. This immediately restores blood flow to the brain and revives dying blood cells, thus reversing the damage caused by the stroke within hours of the procedure. The patient can be discharged from the hospital within a week.
A word of caution
Dr Krishnan Balagopal, head of the Department of Neurology at MIOT International however has a word of caution: “They must reach the patient within the golden window period (within 3 hours) to the right centre so that the victim has a chance of complete recovery through the latest treatment,”
A stroke is always an emergency. The patient cannot help himself in the event of a stroke. It is therefore important that those around him – family, friends, colleagues or bystanders – to be aware and have the presence of mind to respond correctly and quickly by reaching the patient to a hospital that has the necessary expertise and equipment to handle such an emergency.
MIOT Hospitals has a dedicated STROKE EMERGENCY UNIT managed by a team of Neurologists, Interventional Radiologists, Neuro Intensivists, Nurses and Rehabilitation specialists who work together as a team for best possible outcomes for all stroke related cases.