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A recently-approved medical device tested at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge is a promising new addition to the available treatments for stroke, a neurosurgeon who helped administer a clinical trial said.

The device tested at Lutheran General, known as pRESET, offered by phenox Inc., treats acute ischemic stroke, one of the two types of stroke. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the device earlier this year.

Neurosurgeon Joshua Billingsley, M.D., said the device does a good job of leaving blood vessels intact or almost intact while still removing a blood clot, limiting further damage to brain tissue and improving patients’ prospects for recovery.

“The device acts a lot like a net,” he said. “(The device is) entered through an artery in the leg, it’s advanced up into the (brain) and it’s deployed and it grabs ahold of the clot and then you can pull it back out.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, strokes are

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a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Depending on how quickly a stroke victim gets medical attention, they may receive blood thinning drugs to help “break up” a blood clot, per the CDC. If the blood clot continues to block the flow of oxygen-carrying blood to the brain, parts of the brain can be permanently damaged or die.

If strokes are not treated quickly, they can produce speech problems, weakness on one side of the body and other disabilities. According to information from the Centers for Disease Control, people who suffer strokes may also have memory problems, varying degrees of paralysis, difficulty chewing and swallowing, issues with bladder and bowel control and a range of other problems that can impact a patient’s quality of life.

The pREset thrombectomy device, pictured here, was recently approved as a stroke treatment after testing at 23 sites that included Park Ridge's Advocate Lutheran General Hospital. - Original Credit: Handout
The pREset thrombectomy device, pictured here, was recently approved as a stroke treatment after testing at 23 sites that included Park Ridge’s Advocate Lutheran General Hospital.
– Original Credit: Handout

Bob Metcalf, 65, of Gurnee, was treated with the pRESET device after he suffered a stroke in February 2021. His wife Kathy said she found him on the floor and unable to get up shortly around 7 a.m. and realized quickly that he was having a stroke.

Bob was treated with the device as part of the clinical trial and was soon able to walk, climb a flight of stairs and swallow.

“He came back very quickly,” Kathy said.

While he still has some issues with his left hand and getting feeling in his fingertips, as well as changes in his sense of taste, Bob said he feels as though he is “back to where I was” before his stroke.

“Unless you knew Bob very, very well you would not notice the little quirk things that are lingering from the stroke,” Kathy said.

Though the device is not yet for sale in the United States, Billingsley said it is one of a number of options for treating strokes now that it’s been approved by the FDA.

“This is a field that’s rapidly expanding,” he said. “There are other devices that are coming out. We’re in the midst of other trials that involve other devices and other methods.”

The device will likely be available at a similar cost to an existing treatment, Billingsley said.

Lutheran General Hospital was one of three Advocate Aurora Health hospitals to participate in the trial and one of 23 health facilities in the United States and Germany to test the device, according to an Advocate Aurora Health spokesperson.