London and Britain's National Health Service have approved an innovative but relatively simple operation to treat stroke, which will soon be available in all British hospitals.
A stroke is usually caused by blood clots in the blood vessels that reach the brain, resulting in reduced blood and oxygen supply to the brain and the affected person is unable to move.
If somehow these blood clots are removed and the blood supply to the brain is restored, the stroke patient can fully recover in a few days and resume his daily routine. However, in the past, any such operation was considered very risky, in which the possibility of death of the patient was very high.
This stroke operation, called "mechanical thrombectomy", has been performed on a limited basis at St George's Hospital in London since 2010, in which a thin wire is inserted into the artery through an incision in the patient's lower torso, which is then slowly advanced. It goes until it reaches the place in the brain where the blood clot forms.
The thin tip of the wire is attached to the clot, first shaking it to dislodge it, and then a mesh is wrapped around it and the blood clot adheres to it. After that, this wire is pulled back very slowly, along with which the lump enclosed in the net is also pulled. A few days after the blood clot is removed from the body in this way, the patient is once again able to move his hands and feet and walk.
Seeing the usefulness of this technique, the "National Health Service" of Great Britain has decided to use it on a large scale and introduce it to more hospitals. Thus the technique of mechanical thrombectomy will soon be introduced in the treatment of stroke throughout the UK and it is estimated that over 8000 operations will be performed annually for the next four years.