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LOS ANGELES – Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death and a common cause of long-term disability in the United States, but doctors have very few proven treatment methods. Now a new device that mechanically removes stroke-causing clots from the brain is being hailed as a game-changer.
In a recent clinical trial, the SOLITAIRE Flow Restoration Device, a new device that mechanically removes stroke-causing clots from the brain, dramatically outperformed the standard mechanical treatment. Results of the clinical trial are published online in the journal The Lancet and will appear in a later print edition.
SOLITAIRE, manufactured by Covidien, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March. It is designed to remove blood clots from blocked brain arteries in patients experiencing an ischemic stroke. The device works by insertion into a blocked artery using a thin catheter tube, after which it compresses and traps the clot. The clot is then removed by withdrawing the device, thus reopening the blocked blood vessel.
Findings from the trial, called SOLITAIRE with the Intention for Thrombectomy (SWIFT), are published online (August 26) in the journal The Lancet and will also appear in a later print edition of the journal.
SOLITAIRE is among an entirely new generation of devices designed to remove blood clots from blocked brain arteries in patients experiencing an ischemic stroke. It has a self-expanding, stent-like design, and once inserted into a blocked artery using a thin catheter tube, it compresses and traps the clot. The clot is then removed by withdrawing the device, reopening the blocked blood vessel.
"This new device is significantly changing the way we can treat ischemic stroke," said the study's lead author, Dr. Jeffrey L. Saver, director of the UCLA Stroke Center and a professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "We are going from our first generation of clot-removing procedures, which were only moderately good in reopening target arteries, to now having a highly effective tool."