New stroke research based on a single-center Cleveland Clinic study and a multi-center study from Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore and Northshore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill., among others, have found that a particular approach in patients with high rates of clot evaluation significantly improved clinical outcomes for hemorrhagic stroke.
Both studies looked at the BrainPath Approach, a proprietary intervention based on Myriad tissue removal technology and NICO BrainPath access technology developed by manufacturer NICO.
"The inertia has been against aggressive surgical intervention for this disease, but there has also been a constant pressure for progress for this group of patients who have had very bleak recovery or survival odds," Mark Bain, MD, a Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeon, said in a statement. "There has been a need to have data supporting this approach in order to take the big jump for changing how quickly we address hemorrhagic stroke and how we approach it. This is the first step."
Of nearly 50 patients treated using this approach between the two studies, only one died. Patients diagnosed with hemorrhagic stroke generally have more than a 50 percent mortality rate, according to the researchers. NICO plans to begin a trial this year with two Atlanta-based stroke centers that will evaluate the clinical effectiveness of early surgical intervention using its proprietary method for patients who experience ischemic hemorrhagic stroke.