Researchers developed a new device that will remove clots from the brain of stroke patients, could offer new hope to patients who are at increased risk of developing the condition. The new device known as the Solitaire Flow Restoration Device spectacularly does better than the standard mechanical treatments.
The Solitaire Flow Restoration Device was approved by US Food and drug Administration in March, a new generation device which designed to remove blood clots from the blocked arteries of the brain in patients suffering an ischemic stroke. The device is inserted into a blocked artery with the help of a thin catheter tube it squeezes and entraps the clot.
Then the clot is removes by withdrawing the device, reopening the blocked blood vessels. Nearly eighty-eight percent of all strokes occurred because of blood clots blocking a blood vessel supplying the brain. An FDA-approved treatment for stroke is clot-busting drug known as tissue plasminogen activator, but this drug must be given with-in within the first three hours after a stroke.
When clot0busting drugs are ineffective or cannot be used then clot can sometimes be removed mechanically during or beyond three hours window. The study trails of the device showed that it opened blocked vessels without causing symptomatic bleeding in or around the brain in more than sixty percent of patients. This device uses a corkscrew-shaped tip to drill into the blockage before removing it.
The use of the Solitaire Flow Restoration Device also led to better survival of three months after a stroke. Lead author Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver director of the UCLA Stroke Center, explained this new device is significantly changing the way they can treat ischemic stroke. They are going from the first generation of clot-removing procedures.
These were only moderately good in reopening target arteries, to now having a highly effective tool, added Dr L. Saver. The study findings were published in The Lancet journal.