I just read a very interesting article in the New York Times about the Calgary Foothills hospital and how they are treating strokes with EVT (endovascular thrombectomy), which involves threading a device into an artery and removing the blood clot causing the stroke. If the patient is lucky, the chances of a complete recovery are very good. However, it does require a specialized team and coordination with paramedics and ER, so it will take a long time to implement widely. (Gifted article, no paywall)
Stroke kills about six and a half million people around the world annually. It’s the second most common cause of death worldwide, and it consistently ranks among the top five causes of death in Canada and the United States. Beyond the raw death toll, stroke is also a leading global cause of disability — too often, it leaves behind the kinds of severe deficits that force loved ones to become full-time caregivers. Even smaller, less severe strokes are associated with the onset of dementia and many other complications.
Given that toll, it’s no exaggeration to call the EVT one of the most important medical innovations of the past decade, with the potential to save millions of lives and livelihoods. Neurointerventionalists in the United States now complete roughly 60,000 EVTs per year. (Last year, one of them appears to have been done on John Fetterman while he was a Democratic candidate for senator, which means the procedure may have helped determine control of the U.S. Senate.) But the overall number of Americans who could have benefited from an EVT is at least twice that.
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