Doctors use new therapy to cure brain stroke

Indian doctors have started using "Bridging Thrombolysis" therapy to treat complex brain stroke patients, who otherwise can't be treated with conventional therapies. Thrombolysis is the breakdown (lysis) of blood clots by pharmacological means, also referred to as clot-busting.

The use of Thrombolysis came to light when Uday Singh, 50, was admitted to a hospital on 15 June after he suffered a brain stroke which normally leads to a partial paralysis. When he didn't respond to conventional method of treatment, the interventional cardiology team performed a different kind of operation "Bridging Thrombolysis" to clear the blocked arteries in the brain. Singh has now recovered completely. "I am leading a normal life again," said Singh. Dr Praveen Gupta, senior neurologist with Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon who performed this operation believes that treatment of a stroke victim in the first three-five hours is most effective and improves the chances of reversing its effect on the brain.

"It is now one of the most common causes of disability with more than 70% of stroke survivors remaining vocationally impaired and approximately 3% requiring assistance with daily activities. There are risks involved with thrombolysis like bleeding in the brain tissues and 50-70% chances of paralysis only if the patient is not treated on time," added Dr Gupta.

Doctors say that awareness about strokes and its symptoms among physicians and commoners are essential.

"Patients do not realise that they are encountering a stroke and start eating self prescribed medicines. That is unsafe and finally when the patients come to us, after almost 10-16 hours, we lose the window in which we could have saved him from getting paralysed. Due to unhealthy lifestyle and health issues such as blood pressure, physical inactivity, smoking and high alcohol consumption strokes have become common," he said.

The cost for three types of thrombolysis, namely intra-venous, intra-arterial and mechanical, in the National Capital Region , range between Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,50,000.

24 July in The Sunday Guardian.