Submitted May 14, 2012 5:04PM
Edward is one of the first hospitals in Illinois to use the Solitaire stent retriever to capture and remove clots that cause ischemic strokes. | Submitted
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Updated: May 15, 2012 2:03PM
How well we move, think, communicate, regulate our bodily functions and manage our emotions depends on that amazingly complex organ the brain. A stroke, which cuts off delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, can create havoc with any of these abilities. And for about 135,000 Americans each year, these brain attacks are fatal.
A recently FDA-approved weapon in the fight against ischemic strokes, the Solitaire FR clot removal device, is now available at Edward Hospitals Neurosciences Institute, a program thats affiliated with physicians of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation.
Ischemic strokes are those caused by a blood clot (thrombus) reducing blood flow and, as a result, oxygen to the brain. Another type, hemorrhagic stroke, results from a rupture of a blood vessel that leaks into the brain.
In March, an 84-year-old ischemic stroke patient was the first at Edward and one of the first in Illinois to be treated with the new Solitaire stent retriever for mechanical stroke intervention.
Dr. Sameer Ansari, of the Edward Neurosciences Institute, performed the procedure. Ansari is also an assistant professor at Northwestern University in the departments of radiology, neurology and neurosurgery.
Guided by state-of-the-art 3-D biplane imaging equipment, Ansari inserted a catheter containing the device into an artery in the groin and threaded it up to the stroke-causing clot in the middle cerebral artery. The Solitaires stent then expanded in the artery and trapped the clot. The doctor was then able to retrieve and remove the majority of the clot, thereby opening up key blood vessels going to the brain.
More:
Health Aware: Edward patient among first to receive stroke treatment