New Stroke Treatment May Lie In Turn Of A Cork Screw
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday December 1, 2003
A revolutionary treatment for stroke that uses a corkscrew-like device to extract blood clots from the brain will be tested in a Sydney hospital.
Doctors at Royal North Shore have approval to test the device, which could usher in a new generation of stroke treatment. However, they are waiting for the device's overseas manufacturer to finalise insurance arrangements.
Researchers have for several years been trying to develop techniques capable of retrieving cerebral blood clots which cause stroke, but none have yet undergone large-scale testing.
Looking like a tiny corkscrew, the device to be tested at RNS can be fed into an artery in a patient's groin. It can be directed to the clot in the brain, which it can then drag out.
The probe is directed through the body using the same technology used to administer clot-busting drugs, the most advanced technique available to doctors. However, it is hoped the new technique will remove some of the risks associated with clot-busters, which have the potential to cause brain haemorrhage.
The director of Royal North Shore Hospital's stroke unit, Dr Cate Storey said: ``I'm not sure where we are at the moment with regard to the insurance, but that is the only hold-up."
Similar trials in the US have recently been approved by that country's Food and Drug Administration. Dr Storey said there had been little trouble gaining approval for the Australian trial.
While she could not say when the trial was likely to start, she said it was ``definitely back on the agenda" and ``we will probably be able to use it soon, given a suitable patient, [but] we are talking months rather than weeks".
Stroke is Australia's third leading cause of death and one of the leading causes of adult disability. More than 48,000 Australians suffered a stroke last year. Experts expect the ageing population will drive this figure 30 per cent higher by 2020.
The medical director of Australia's National Stroke Foundation, Professor Geoffrey Donnan , said stroke research was moving towards the development of techniques capable of extracting clots from the brain.
``These devices represent the new generation of approach beyond clot-busting," he said. ``There are many different devices being trialled.
``Some are suction devices, others are corkscrews. Things move very quickly."
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
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