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Better Therapy Method Helps Stroke Patients
Around 260,000 people in Germany suffer a stroke each year. About half of them are permanently disabled afterwards. A new method of therapy, the thrombectomy, is primarily intended to help people who have suffered a severe stroke.
New method works spectacularly well
A new stroke emergency therapy is intended to protect patients with a large blood clot in the brain from permanent disability. As the "Deutsche Welle" (DW) reports online, Jens Fiehler from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf explained that the treatment of a stroke with the catheter method works spectacularly well. He claims to have used it on many patients. According to the German Stroke Society (DSG), studies have also shown that thrombectomy is promising.
Blood clot is removed from the vessel
In a stroke, a clot closes a vessel. In the new treatment method, the treating physicians pull the blood plug out of the vessel via catheter. Thereafter, a catheter is inserted into the carotid artery, in which a micro catheter is inserted. This microcatheter is extremely thin - about half a millimeter. From this catheter, a folded stent, a tiny metal mesh, advanced. "This stent unfolds into the blood clot, expands and, to a certain extent, cuts itself into this blood clot. Then you pull out the unfolded metal mesh together with the blood clot, "explained Fiehler the procedure, which lasts 30 to 45 minutes and is controlled by a monitor.
Treatment method not suitable for all patients
However, the method was not suitable for all stroke patients. According to the medical experts, only serious and severe cases come into question. "This catheter method can be used only in patients who have a very large thrombus in the vessels," said Joachim Röther, spokesman for the DSG. "If a small blood clot deep inside the brain clogs a vessel, then the way is too far. But here it is about large thrombi sitting in the end of the cervical artery or in the middle cerebral artery. Since you get along with this catheter very well and can remove the thrombus mechanically. "
Severe symptoms of large clots
With large clots, the vessels are correspondingly large and provide a large area of the brain. Affected persons experience severe symptoms. "These badly affected patients often have complete speech loss or paralysis of arm and leg that makes them unable to move at all. This is not the case with a slight stroke due to a small vascular occlusion, "explained Fiehler. According to Röther, the method has continued to evolve over many years: "At first, it was just a small catheter used to inject a drug to dissolve the blood clot directly into the thrombus. Then came more and more technical developments, such as the stent, with which you can just capture the thrombus and pull out of the vessel. "
Method is "without any doubt" very effective
When the breakthrough finally came, not all colleagues were initially convinced of the method, but today these skeptics no longer exist, said Fiehler. In the renowned medical journal "New England Journal of Medicine", five studies have been published that have presented the new therapy for stroke patients. "All these studies clearly show, without any doubt, that this method is very effective," says Fiehler. "This is not an area where you can have different opinions. It's just a fact. "
Patients need to be treated quickly
Patients with stroke need to be treated as soon as possible to minimize potential risks of serious consequences such as speech loss or paralysis. Therefore it is important to know the different hints. Dizziness and speech disturbances, for example, can be important signs of a stroke. There are currently 264 DSG-certified Stroke Units in Germany - specialized units in clinics specializing in the care of patients with strokes. "Stroke patients who reach a Stroke Unit in Germany in good time receive treatment on a very high level today," explained Professor Dr. med. med. Darius Nabavi, Chief Physician of the Neurological Clinic at the Vivantes Hospital in Berlin-Neukölln recently stated in a communication: "In about ten to fifteen percent of patients, we try to dissolve the blood clot into the arm vein by infusing a drug." This applies to very large clots failed, is the new method, which is also called "mechanical recanalization", a "much needed supplement for the hard-hit".
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