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Hospitals are increasingly offering a surgical procedure known as a mechanical thrombectomy to remove the clots in arteries that cause strokes. The surgery is performed in conjunction with intravenous medicine that breaks up clots.
WHAT IS A STROKE?
A lack of blood flow to the brain causes the most common type of stroke, known as an ischemic stroke. Blood clots created by the body to heal wounds can become dislodged, travel through the bloodstream and block arteries carrying blood to the brain. Risk factors for stroke include high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and high cholesterol.
THE SURGERY
1. Inserting the device: After locating the clot with a CT scan, a doctor inserts a guide wire and tube into the femoral artery near the groin and guides the tube through the body, bypassing the heart, to pierce through the clot.
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2. Grabbing the clot: The doctor feeds a cylindrical stent retriever made of metal mesh through the tube. The tube is retracted and the retriever expands in the clot, partially restoring the flow of blood.
3. Extracting the clot: The retriever and clot are then removed from the body through the incision near the groin.
Sources: Stryker Neurovascular, American Stroke Association, Tribune reporting