Man arrives at government hospital in Chennai within two hours of stroke, treated, recovers

The patient was treated with a mechanical thrombectomy; time is of the essence when treating a stroke, A.L. Periakaruppan, interventional radiologist, Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital emphasised

In the treatment of stroke, “time is brain” and “time is neurons”, as every second counts. Greater time loss means losing more neurons, with 1.9 million neurons lost every second, said A.L. Periakaruppan, interventional radiologist, Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital (TNGMSSH), on Tuesday.

Citing the case of a 36-year-old, who was treated for stroke at TNGMSSH recently, Dr. Periakaruppan said that the man started to experience symptoms at 11.45 a.m. on January 24 and reached the hospital at 1.45 p.m., within a span of two hours. The man came in with complaints of weakness of the left upper limb and lower limb and an inability to speak.

“When it comes to strokes, the golden period is up to 4.5 hours for an intravenous injection, from the time of onset of symptoms. The patient was in the golden period, but in stroke treatment, whether a large blood vessel or a small vessel is involved is crucial. As recommended, we took a CT scan of the brain to check for bleeding. We found there was no bleeding in the brain but a major blood vessel on the right side was completely blocked,” he said.

Deciding that intravenous thrombolysis may not be beneficial for the patient due to the involvement of a major blood vessel, doctors took him up directly for mechanical thrombectomy. “This is a keyhole procedure in which we pass a catheter through the groin to the brain using a stent retriever to remove the clot, thereby restoring blood flow to the brain. He started to walk on the same night of the procedure and was discharged after three days,” Dr. Periakaruppan explained.

Due to this emergency procedure, there was significant improvement in the quality of life, as well as disability-adjusted life years, for the patient, a press release said.

Noting that delays in treatment could cause paralysis, Dr. Periakaruppan said that time was a crucial factor for stroke treatment, as otherwise, productive life could be lost, and quality of life can be affected.

Preventive measures are also vital, he said, adding that physical activity, adequate hydration, breathing exercise, taking appropriate medication for diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol problems were essential.