Time window to help people who ’ve had a stroke longer than previously shown

Time is of the essence when getting people stricken with acute ischemic strokes to treatment. And the use of stent retrievers — devices that remove the blood clot like pulling a cork out of a wine bottle — has proven to be a breakthrough for removing the life-threatening blockage of blood flow to the brain.Current professional guidelines recommend that the procedure be performed within six hours for people to benefit. But researchers on a UCLA-led study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association have found that the procedure has benefits for people up to 7.3 hours following the onset of a stroke.“Extending the time window for therapy will let us help more patients, including patients who were not able to get to a hospital right away because the stroke started while they were asleep or made them unable to call for help,” said Dr. Jeffrey Saver, director of theUCLA Comprehensive Stroke Center and the study ’s lead author.The researchers also found that for each six-minute delay, there is a 1 percent increase in the proportion of people who end up disabled, underscoring the need for people to seek treatment as quickly as possible when they experience symptoms of a stroke. The study examined the relationship between the onset of the stroke, the amount of time until the blockage was treated and patient outcomes.The first coil-shaped clot retriever was invented at UCLA and cleared for use in 2004. For this study, researchers primarily used a newer ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news