New Treatment Shown to Reverse Stroke

A clinical trial has demonstrated that doctors can reverse stroke in a patient through the use of a clot retrieval device. The trial was conducted at the Mid-America Brain and Stroke Institute at St. Luke's Hospital (Kansas City, KS, USA).

The patient in the trial developed signs of stroke and rushed to the hospital, where stroke was diagnosed. Doctors used a clot retrieval device with a corkscrew-like microwire to treat the patient. A catheter was inserted into an artery of the patient, and the microwire was threaded through the artery and up into the brain, guided by biplane angiography. The corkscrew was used to snare the clot and remove it from the brain to reverse the stroke.

The patient was able to go home five days later and has recovered completely. Unlike the three-hour window for using clot-busting drugs, this new treatment for strokes has an eight-hour window, which increases the number of patients eligible for treatment. Other US sites are also studying treatment with the device, called the Concentric Merci Retriever System.

"The new mechanical clot retrieval device removes the blockage just as you would remove a plug in your drainpipe,” said Marilyn Rymer, M.D., neurologist and medical director of the stroke center at St. Luke's. "This will makes stroke reversal possible for people who are too late to receive tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) or who can't receive it because it is too risky, such as patients advanced in age or who have had a recent surgery.”




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