KOCHI: Stroke causes six times more deaths in people than C-19 does. But then, it’s hardly talked about. 

Consistent with the worldwide Burden of Disease study, India reports 1.29 million new stroke cases annually. 

It's also the third-largest explanation for deaths and disability in India, consistent with the study which was recently released.

“One in six individuals carries the danger of facing a stroke. So, we should always remember the symptoms. 

It's crucial to recollect that in select cases, stroke is often treated efficiently through intravenous thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy with excellent chances of recovery,” says dr Mounil Haq T P, consultant interventional neurologist at E M S Memorial Cooperative Hospital and Research Centre, Kerala.

One of the foremost critical factors to think about during stroke treatment is the time taken to urge the affected person to a hospital.

Normally, doctors suggest patients be delivered to the hospital within 3.5 hours of symptoms surfacing.

Moreover, the absence of ordinary treatment protocols and therefore the lack of affordable treatment adds to the burden.

Delay in seeking the proper treatment results in a loss of about 20 lakh brain cells per minute. 

This is often where advanced technology and medical procedures like mechanical thrombectomy have displayed proven results and better success rates.

Not only do they increase the treatment window to up to 24 hours, but the success rates also are considered to be one of the simplest.

Also read | Telemedicine and MTP

What is Mechanical Thrombectomy

Mechanical thrombectomy may be a sort of minimally invasive procedure during which specialized medical devices like stent retrievers and catheters are used to remove a clot from a patient’s artery within the brain.

Using CathLab guidance, the doctor guides these devices through the patient’s arteries to the clot, extracting the clot.

But the technology is being adopted slowly. So far, only 10% of the 11,000 patients treated for acute ischaemic stroke in India have have had have received mechanical thrombectomy as a treatment option.

“Mechanical thrombectomy is extremely effective in revascularization, successful in almost 95 percent of cases, and facilitates clinical recovery in 60 percent of patients,” Haq said.

Types of stroke

The most common sort of stroke is ischemic, accounting for nearly 87% of all cases across the country. 

It's caused by a clot or other blockage to a brain artery.

The remaining 13% of cases are hemorrhagic strokes which are caused by bleeding of an aneurysm within the brain artery. 

Doctors and doctors largely attribute the high prevalence and morbidity rates to the shortage of awareness amongst the overall population alongside limited exposure and knowledge about new technologies like Mechanical Thrombectomy to scale back the morbidity rates.
https://thehealthmaster.com/2020/11/11/stroke-treatment-new-scope/