‘Miracle’ treatment that brings stroke patients back to life

PATIENTS paralysed by strokes are being ‘brought back to life’ by a revolutionary treatment, experts have reported.

An estimated 10,000 patients a year in Britain could benefit from the operation, which one doctor last night described as the biggest change in stroke treatment ‘in medical history’.

The procedure involves carefully removing the devastating clots from deep within the brain, using a 3ft-long wire.

A stent at the end of the wire envelopes the clot and pulls it out, allowing blood to flow freely to the brain.

The first 24/7 regional unit to use the technique – known as mechanical thrombectomy – has now opened at St George’s Hospital in South London.

A 17-year-old girl from Surrey, the first to be treated at the unit, was unable to speak or move the right side of her body when she was brought to the hospital.

Consultant neurologist Dr Bhavini Patel said: ‘As soon as the doctors pulled the wire out, that was it. She was speaking again. I went in to see her and she said, “Oh, I can move my leg. I can move my arm. I can speak.” She went home the next day,’ he told the Evening Standard.

Dr Joe Leyon, an interventional neuroradiologist at St George’s, added: ‘It’s devastating for patients to find one moment they’re completely paralysed and/or have lost speech.

‘It’s fair to say they have been brought back to life when they get these functions back in a moment.’

Hospitals in Leeds, Stoke and other major stroke units have also started using the procedure, but its availability is patchy and not available out of hours.

Crucially, it has to be used within four and a half hours of the stroke to be effective.

NHS England is currently considering whether to roll the technique out more widely.

Until now doctors have used drugs to dissolve the blood clots that cause strokes – but the chemicals can have severe side effects, and do not work at all in about 15 per cent of patients with the most severe strokes.

They have been trialling mechanical thrombectomy for about a decade.

At first it involved poking the clot with a wire until it broke up, but this was risky because parts of the clot could float away and cause problems elsewhere. The newer devices use a wire stent, fed through an artery in the groin, to grab the clot and remove it entirely – with far better results.

A study of 1,287 patients with major strokes, published in the Lancet in February, showed that 50 per cent of people treated with mechanical thrombectomy had shown neurological recovery within 24 hours, compared to just 21 per cent treated with clot-busting drugs.

They were also far less likely to be left disabled 90 days after their stroke. Dr Tufail Patankar, who has been pioneering the procedure at Leeds General Infirmary, said: ‘The equipment is getting better and better.

‘We have been using it in Leeds for about six years, but we now have evidence that it has significantly better outcomes.

‘This is the biggest change in medical history for the treatment of stroke – and we need it to be rolled out more widely.

‘What they are doing at St George’s is fantastic. We need that provision in more places.

‘In Leeds, if you come in during the day, you will likely get treated in this way, but if you come in at the weekend, or if you live in Halifax or Bradford, you are not going to get it.’ Alexis Wieroniey, deputy director of policy and campaigns at the Stroke Association, said: ‘Thrombectomy is a revolutionary stroke treatment because it reduces the chances of someone being severely disabled after a stroke.

‘NHS England are deciding if this vital treatment should be available across the country.

‘We urge them to support this. It’s a powerful treatment that could potentially be given to 10,000 stroke patients per year. We already know that access to stroke treatment and care varies depending on where people live. We do not want that to be the case with this treatment.’

‘Removes the clot entirely’