Clot-buster operation that 'brings stroke sufferers back to life': Treatment could help 8,000 patients by removing blockages using three-foot wire
- * Up to 8,000 stroke sufferers a year will benefit from the revolutionary technique
- * Process works for more people and is far more effective than traditional drugs
- * Procedure involves removing devastating blood clots which cause strokes
A treatment for strokes that can bring patients ‘back to life’ on the operating table is becoming available across the NHS.
Up to 8,000 stroke sufferers a year will benefit from the revolutionary technique, which works for more people and is far more effective than traditional drugs.
The procedure – called a mechanical thrombectomy – involves carefully removing the devastating blood clots which cause strokes from deep within the brain using a three-foot long wire.
Up to 8,000 stroke sufferers a year will benefit from the revolutionary technique, which works for more people and is far more effective than traditional drugs
Until now, doctors have mainly used drugs to dissolve the blood clots – but the chemicals can have severe side effects, and do not work at all in about 15 per cent of patients with the most severe strokes.
Patients treated with the new procedure have an 80 to 90 per cent chance of success, compared with 30 per cent using clot-busting drugs.
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** I am still maintaining progress and although I don't always see it, people who have not seen me for a while notice the difference.
In the main I keep reasonably well, but there are still things that I cannot do which can cause me frustration rather than despondency.
I am more active, which is good, but this in turn still causes exhaustion and sore limbs, muscles and joints. Although I shower daily, I occasionally use Epsom Salts in a bath which relieve the tired muscles. It does feel as though it can be a vicious circle at times but that is the consequence of progress and wanting to conquer the effects of my Stroke.
I still cannot blow my nose properly and it has been suggested that I could improve on this situation by trying to extinguish a candle by blowing down my nose! Well, I'm prepared to try anything and will have to see what happens!
