Stroke Treatments

Ischemic Stroke

Acute Treatment

• Clot-busters, e.g., tPA: The most promising treatment for ischemic stroke is the FDA-approved clot-busting drug tPA, which must be administered within a three-hour window from the onset of symptoms.  Sadly, the national average of those receiving tPA is only 3 to 5 percent.  In 2007, University Hospital’s Stroke Team treated 13.5% of stroke patients with IV t-PA.
  
  
• Interventional Neurology: If a patient presents after the 3 hour window, this newly established subspecialty of Neurology provides hope! Neurointerventional procedures are performed under the guidance of advanced X-ray monitors. Recent advances in imaging and nanotechnology enables the highly-trained physician to treat blocked arteries of the brain by removing, breaking-up, or even sucking out the blood clot. Clot busting medications can also be delivered to the blocked artery by way of the catheter. University Hospital’s Stroke Center Department of Interventional Neurology is lead by one of the nation’s few Interventional Neurologists.
  

Preventative Treatment

• Anticoagulants/Antiplatelets
  Antiplatelet medications (such as aspirin), anticoagulants (such as warfarin), Plavix, and Aggrenox interfere with the blood's ability to clot and can play an important role in preventing stroke.
   
• Carotid Endarterectomy
  Carotid endarterectomy is a procedure in which atherosclerosis (a blood vessel blockage) is surgically removed from the carotid artery.
  
  
• Angioplasty/Stents
  Doctors sometimes use balloon angioplasty and implantable steel screens called stents to treat cardiovascular disease in which mechanical devices are used to remedy fatty buildup clogging the vessel.
  
  

Hemorrhagic Stroke

• Surgical Intervention
  For hemorrhagic stroke, surgical treatment is often recommended to either place a metal clip at the base, (the neck) of the aneurysm or to remove the abnormal vessels comprising an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM).
  
  
• Endovascular Procedures, e.g., "coils"
  Endovascular procedures are less invasive and involve the use of a catheter introduced through a major artery in the leg or arm, guided to the aneurysm or AVM where it deposits a mechanical agent, such as a coil, to prevent rupture.
  

For more information on stroke click here

Source American Heart Association