Speedy treatment of stroke patients with new clot retrieval device vastly improves outcomes

In the treatment of stroke patients, time really is brain. A few minutes can mean the difference between patients living independently or suffering debilitating disabilities. Now, UCLA researchers have shown, for the first time, that speedy treatment with a new-generation stent clot retrieval device results in greatly improved outcomes, and that even a five-minute delay negatively affects patients. The one-year study found that when blood flow was restored to the brain within four hours of the start of a stroke, 80 percent of patients had a very good outcome — meaning that they survived and were able to live independently three months later. The researchers also found that the odds of a poorer outcome increased by one percent for every five minutes that passed between the onset of a stroke and the time when doctors reopened the blocked artery, according to Dr. Sunil Sheth, a fellow in radiological sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The impact of the speed of treatment was found to be enormous,” Sheth said. “These findings indicate that stroke centers worldwide should strive to bring patients quickly to comprehensive stroke centers offering this therapy, and that those centers should work to shorten the times from patient arrival to artery reopening.” The study results appear today in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Neurology. In recent years, doctors’ ability to restore blood flow to a patient’s brain after a stroke has advanced treme...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news