UCLA study shows promise, offers hope for brain hemorrhage patients

A new endoscopic surgical procedure has been shown to be safer and to result in better outcomes than the current standard medical treatment for patients who suffer strokes as a result of brain hemorrhages, UCLA neurosurgeons have announced.   The findings from their potentially groundbreaking, randomized, controlled phase 2 clinical trial, which was conducted at multiple medical centers, were presented last week at the International Stroke Conference in Honolulu.   "These exciting results offer a glimmer of hope for a condition that most doctors have traditionally considered hopeless," said principal investigator Dr. Paul Vespa, professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the neurocritical care program at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. "That is a big deal in medicine."   Stroke is the leading cause of death and long-term disability in America. During a stroke, bleeding becomes toxic and deadly in the brain. Brain hemorrhage that causes stroke is a devastating, critical condition with a mortality rate of 75 percent. If a patient manages to survive, he or she could face a life of severe disability. Nearly 800,000 Americans suffer strokes each year.    In the past, brain surgery to treat such hemorrhages involved making a large incision to remove the blood. But this method traumatized the brain and failed to improve patients' quality of life. As a result, open surgery is uncommon for bleeding in the b...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news