Many stroke patients have a new treatment option – if they seek help fast enough to get it. New guidelines endorse using a removable stent to open clogged arteries causing a stroke.
The guidelines, issued Monday by the American Heart Association, are the first time the group has recommended a device for treating strokes, and it’s the first new stroke treatment in two decades to win the group’s strongest backing. The federal government no longer issues guidelines like these, so the Heart Association’s advice clears the way for more doctors to offer the treatment.
“It is pretty exciting,” and many patients will benefit if they seek help when symptoms first appear, said the head of the guidelines panel, Dr. William J. Powers, neurology chief at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Most of the 800,000 strokes in the U.S. each year are caused by a blood clot lodged in the brain. The usual treatment is a clot-dissolving medicine called tPA, and it remains the first choice.
But the drug must be given within 4½ hours after symptoms start, and most people don’t seek help in time. The drug also fails to work in one or two of every four cases, Powers said.