Interventional radiology is another treatment option for stroke

Stroke is known as one of the most life-threatening conditions. If it isn’t treated in time, life-long disability can follow.

 

When treating stroke, doctors will insert a stent to open or widen the narrowed or blocked artery to allow blood to flow. 

 

If stroke has occurred, treatment will differ according to the nature of the blood clot. If the blood clot is new and easy to dissolve, the treatment is only to inject rt-PA or a clot-busting medication at the site directly and not at a very high dose. Doing this can reduce complications and reduce the time it takes for the drug to be delivered through the circulatory system, since the drug does not have to travel through the lungs, heart or liver to reach the artery. However, if the blood clot has been formed for a long time and is quite viscous, or if the doctor has administered a clot-busting medication for more than 4 hours and symptoms do not improve, the doctor will use the clot retriever method, which requires only 4-6 hours to perform. In doing so, the doctor will use a stent to capture the blood clot and remove it.

 

Meanwhile, if an artery has ruptured, the doctor will consider the severity of it. If surgery is unnecessary, the placement of stent to restore the blood flow at the site of the aneurism will be enough.  

This is a treatment option for some patients who cannot be treated by surgery or who would have high risk during surgery, e.g., elderly patients, patients who cannot inhale anesthesia for long, lung disease patients, etc. We call this radiation intervention “vascular intervention”, and it be administered to blood vessels in any part of the body. Interventional radiology is a method that uses medical instruments like an x-ray machine, a CT scanner, an MRI machine or an ultrasound device to guide the insertion of a small catheter through the veins or arteries into the body along with the injection of a contrast media (conveniently called a “dye injection”) to allow a view of the blood vessel abnormalities that show up on the x-ray screen to let the doctor correct the abnormalities at their site.

A treatment shortcut is to inject a dye into the cerebral arteries. Also known as a cerebral angiogram, it involves the insertion of a catheter into a femoral artery and then injecting a dye to observe arterial abnormalities at various sites. This diagnostic radiological technique produces more accurate results than using computer x-ray imagery to examine the arteries.

Cerebral ischemia treatment by relying on angiogram has several benefits. For example, it does not cause a lot of pain in the patient, nor a lot of blood loss. Its recovery time is also short and it might be possible for the patient to be discharged within just one day. It is quite safe, produces good and quick results, etc. The only down side is that it is fairly expensive. However, a more important reason that causes patients to lose the opportunity to receive this treatment is arriving too late to the doctor or later than 6 hours after onset of the condition. This is because extended periods of cerebral ischemia can cause death or disability.

 

In treating cerebral ischemia, doctors will receive patients directly from other doctors at the brain and spinal cord center. Upon determining that a patient should receive a particular treatment method, the doctor will inject a dye to examine the arteries and then administer a drug at specific locations or insert a stent or extract a blood clot. In any case, regardless of the step of treatment, Phyathai 2 Hospital is fully prepared to treat patients with medical tools, medical and nursing teams that are ready and professional at all times.