PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -
A team of researchers and medical professionals from Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital are seeing remarkable results from a breakthrough procedure designed to help stroke patients.
In a nationwide trial involving more than 140 patients, doctors experimented with the new procedure which uses removable stints as of way opening blocked arteries in the brain.
The procedure was performed on patients within eight hours of an acute ischemic stroke, caused by a lack of blood flow to the brain often due to a blood clot. Doctors use a catheter to place a small stint in the affected blood vessel, causing blood to again flow to the brain, minimizing brain damage.
Doctors said the clot is absorbed by the stint's mesh and both are then removed from the affected artery within five minutes of insertion.
The new procedure differs from the more common way to treat clots in the brain, which uses a corkscrew-like device to remove the clot and sometimes requires several attempts.
Doctors in the study said 56 percent of patients utilizing the new procedure showed an increased rate of recovery and were less like to die as a result of a stroke.
A team of doctors from the Oregon Stroke Center at OHSU performed the procedure on 35 patients, more than any of the other 18 medical centers participating in the study.
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OHSU doctors see success with new stroke treatment