healthspin
The treatment window for the
most common type of stroke has
expanded from three hours to 24
hours at North Oaks Medical Center
due to enhanced interventional
radiology capabilities made possible
by the addition of Dr. Zachary Liner,
a Neuroradiologist, to medical staff.
The hospital, which is a certified
Primary Stroke Center through
The Joint Commission, is the only
facility on the Northshore currently
offering a lifesaving procedure
called
intracranial
mechanical
thrombectomy.
This minimally invasive procedure
is now part of the hospital’s arsenal
of effective treatment options for
ischemic strokes, the most common
type. When an ischemic stroke
occurs, the blood supply to the brain
is blocked by a blood clot or plaque.
Without a healthy blood supply, the
brain doesn’t receive the oxygen and
nutrients needed to work properly,
and brain tissue begins to die.
Historically,
a
clot-busting
drug called tPA has been used
to treat this type of stroke, but
it must be administered within
three to four hours of onset of
symptoms. Intracranial mechanical
thrombectomy is a game changer
because it widens the treatment
window up to 24 hours.
The procedure is made possible
by image-guided catheters and a wire
cage device, called a stent retriever,
which are used to remove blood clots
in large vessels in the brain. Liner
threads the catheter through an
artery in the groin up to the blockage
in the brain. He then deploys the
stent retriever through the clot and
removes the stent retriever with the
captured clot through the catheter
that was placed in the artery.
“Ideally, the procedure should be
done within six hours of symptom
onset,” explains Liner. “However,
a national study called the DAWN
Trial and published in The New
North Oaks Medical Center Leading
the Way in Stroke Treatment on the
Northshore
England Journal of Medicine, has
proven it can still be effective if
done within 24 hours of onset under
certain conditions. This gives us a
greater chance of helping people
who wake up with stroke symptoms
and don’t really know when they first
started. More importantly, it’s more
likely patients will regain movement,
speech or other abilities lost.”
Glen Sterling of Tangipahoa is
one such patient who has made a
total recovery from his stroke thanks
to this procedure. He was eating
breakfast when his wife Charlene
noticed the warning signs of a stroke.
His lips looked droopy, his left side
was limp, and he was slurring his
words. She called 911, and within
10 minutes, first responders were
on scene, confirmed he was having
a stroke and made the call to airlift
him to North Oaks Medical Center,
where the Interventional Radiology
team ordered a CT scan to confirm
that Sterling was a candidate
for
intracranial
mechanical
thrombectomy. The procedure
took about 53 minutes, and when
Sterling awoke, he showed no visible
signs of the stroke. Two days later,
he returned home thankful that
debilitating outcomes were avoided.
A Hammond native, Liner has
returned home after completing
a fellowship in Interventional
Radiology through Baylor Scott
& White Health in Temple, Texas
with an additional fellowship year
in Interventional Neuroradiology
through the University of California
– San Francisco. He earned his
medical degree at LSU School
of Medicine in New Orleans and
completed an internship in General
Surgery at Emory University and a
residency in Diagnostic Radiology at
Rochester General in New York.
Now with the necessary team
and infrastructure in place, North
Oaks Medical Center is aiming to
develop Interventional Radiology
services even further. The hospital
is partnering with the North Oaks
Foundation to purchase a $1.8
million neurointerventional biplane
unit that can capture two- and
three-dimensional images of the
brain, arteries and spine with one
single injection of X-ray dye. The
foundation has committed to raising
$500,000 toward the purchase.
Stroke is the No. 4 cause of
death in Louisiana, according to
the American Heart Association/
American Stroke Association. Time
is brain when it comes to stroke
care as evidenced by the fact that
someone suffers a stroke every 40
seconds in the U.S. Someone dies
due to stroke every four minutes, and
nearly one million people suffer a
new or recurrent stroke each year.
People having a stroke may
experience some or all of the following
warning signs, some of which can
be subtle: sudden numbness or
weakness of the face, arm or leg,
especially on one side of the body;
sudden confusion, trouble speaking
or understanding speech; sudden
trouble seeing in one or both eyes;
sudden trouble walking, dizziness,
loss of balance or coordination; and
sudden severe headache with no
known cause.
To easily remember the sudden
signs of stroke, use the acronym
FAST – Face, Arms, Speech, Time.
When you spot these signs, it’s time
to call 911 for help.
To watch Glen Sterling share
his stroke survival story, visit www.
northoaks.org/ir. For information
about interventional radiology
services at North Oaks Medical
Center, visit www.northoaks.org or
call North Oaks at (985) 230-6647.
For information about the North
Oaks Foundation giving campaign,
contact North Oaks Volunteer
Services/Foundation Director Staci
Arceneaux at (985) 230-6674 or visit
www.northoaks.org/foundation.