Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Stroke Also Included In: Medical Devices / Diagnostics;Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 27 Aug 2012 - 2:00 PDT
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Stroke, where blood supply to the brain becomes restricted, is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and is also a common cause of long-term disability. The loss of blood supply leaves tissue starved of oxygen and vital nutrients, and if not restored quickly, the tissue dies off, causing loss of brain function.
Doctors don't have many tools to deal effectively with strokes, nearly 90% of which are caused by a blood clot. The most-researched treatment approved in the US is a clot-buster known as tissue plasminogen activator, but this drug has to be given within a small time window of 4.5 hours from the start of the stroke, and the window is even smaller in older patients.
If clot-busting drugs are ruled out, then the other option is mechanical retrieval (mechanical thrombectomy), for which the standard treatment uses the Merci Retrieval System.
Lead author Jeffrey L. Saver, director of the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) Stroke Center, told the press:
"This new device is significantly changing the way we can treat ischemic stroke."
"We are going from our first generation of clot-removing procedures, which were only moderately good in reopening target arteries, to now having a highly effective tool," said Saver, who is also a professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
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New Mechanical Clot-Remover Highly Effective In Stroke Trial