ABC 7: Brain Stents for Stroke Patients Offer New Hope
ABC 7 recently interviewed Michael Alexander, MD, vice chair of Neurosurgery and director of the Neurovascular Center and Endovascular Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai, about a lifesaving, minimally invasive procedure called intracranial stenting that opens blocked arteries in the brain to restore blood flow and help prevent a debilitating stroke.
Alexander told ABC 7 news reporter Denise Dador that the state-of-the-art procedure was recently used to help Cedars-Sinai patient Cornelius Albert, who experienced a ministroke due to a blocked artery in the area of the brain that controls vision, balance and speech.
“He was having dizziness every day,” Alexander told Dador. “He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t drive.”
Alexander explained that he placed a tube in Albert’s wrist artery, which goes up into the brain artery, so that Albert would not need an incision in his head.
“We don’t have to open up the head to put a stent in there,” Alexander told Dador, “and so it’s minimally invasive.”
After a short recovery period, Albert’s symptoms were gone, and today he can drive again.
Alexander, who is an expert in intracranial stenting, has led studies finding that brain stenting is safe and effective in reducing the incidence of more serious or deadly strokes in patients like Albert.
“We’re doing five times as many intracranial stents now than we did five years ago,” Alexander told Dador.
A buildup of plaque (fat, cholesterol and other substances) in the arteries of the brain—known as intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD)—is the third leading cause of stroke in the U.S.
Click here to watch the entire segment on ABC 7.