Small artery
Occluded Clot
No blood low
Lysis
Low blood flow
Targeting
Disassembly
EXPANDING ACCESS AND CARE
This accessible , affordable technology could have any number of applications , but Neeves and his team are currently focused on using the microwheels to dissolve stroke-inducing blood clots . According to Neeves , stroke treatment has long been stagnant and relies heavily on just one FDA-approved drug with significant side effects . Strokes can also be treated using thrombectomy catheters , which are inserted into blood vessels to manually rip a clot out . To access this treatment though , patients must be lucky enough to live near a hospital that has the necessary suite of tools and expertise .
What ’ s more , 25 to 30 % of strokes occur in small blood vessels , which are difficult to reach with catheters and often don ’ t get enough blood flow to successfully deliver clot-busting pharmaceuticals . This is a problem in children with strokes too , whose blood vessels are much smaller than their older counterparts .
That ’ s where Neeves ’ science-fiction approach could one day make all the difference . With its use of recycled audio materials and its simple infrastructure , it could expand access to care , and its medical benefits are twofold .
“ It ’ s not just dumping the drug there at the side of the clot . It actually drives into the clot because we have this mechanical force that allows us to penetrate ,” Neeves says . “ And so rather than dissolving something just at the surface like sandpaper , what we do is we actually drive them in , and it dissolves the clot from the inside
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