Treatment Window Increases for Stroke Patients

Strokes are the number one cause of long-term disability and the number three killer in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Ameer Hassan, Head of the Neuroscience Department at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, and the hospital’s Neuroscience program, participated in a study published by the New England Journal Medicine in November 2017.

The research discovered that the window of treatment for stroke patients can actually surpass the proven six-hour period and that some patients can actually be treated up to 24 hours later.

With that window of opportunity closed, stroke patients now have the option to be treated by using mechanical thrombectomy.

“Using this advance imaging and afford him the current advance technology to his stroke,” said Dr. Ameer Hassan. “They’ll recover, they’ll be fully functional, they’ll be able to go back to work, go back to their families and they won’t be dependent.”