First 4 hours essential for stroke patients, say experts

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 29

Stroke could be devastating not just for patients but also for their family members as well. Various city-based hospitals observed World Stroke Day on Monday.

At the Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana, Department of Neurology and Community Medicine organised a stroke update. Dr Anirudh Kulkarni, In-charge neuro-intervention lab said, “Initially stroke treatment for blockage was possible for only upto 4.5 hours. Now, the treatment can be done upto 24 hours. However, for best treatment one should reach hospital as early as possible.”

He said two major problems in patients with stroke were narrowing of brain blood pipes (stenosis) and rupture of brain blood pipes (aneurysmal rupture). With latest technology, the narrowing of brain pipes could be treated with stenting and rupture could be taken care of with coiling.

Dr Shavinder Singh, professor and head of the community medicine, told about information collected by his team over a period of three years as a part of “Ludhiana Rural Stroke Registry”.

Dr Shavinder and his team trained the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) in Sidhwan and Pakhowal blocks to identify stroke patients. They collected information of 552 patients and said many patients were not able to recognise stroke symptoms.

Dr Mahesh Kate, head of neurology said, “The village folks have to travel for hours before they can reach a neurologist. We decided to empower the ASHA with a special box which contains blood pressure machine, glucometer, smart-phone to connect with the neurologist at CMC, an education booklet for stroke prevention called ‘Aarogya Sahayak’.

Dr Kate said, “Our comprehensive stroke prevention box is called ‘Stroke rok kit’. It is like a doctor in the box. With this kit, one can achieve 80 per cent prevention rate.”

Dr Alok Jain, consultant neurologist and stroke care specialist, Fortis Hospital, discussed about various risk factors and measures to prevent stroke in a day-to-day life. Dr Jain stressed upon increase chances of recurrent stroke in patients who have had one stroke and also increased risk in women and patients with poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and obesity.

He also discussed about the importance of the first few golden hours in treatment of brain attack, in which clot dissolving injection treatment (thrombolysis) could be done.

Dr Vishnu Gupta, neuro-interventionist and senior consultant neurosurgeon told about latest advances in stroke management, including intra-arterial thrombolysis and endovascular therapy (clot retrieving with stent devices). He also informed about stroke rehabilitation and motivated patients to continue with regular exercises.

Another expert Dr RS Bhatia of the SPS Hospital said, “After suffering strke first four hours are vital for a patient.” He said there are increase chances of recurrent stroke in patients who have already suffered a stroke.