The highly advanced but minimally invasive procedure to treat stroke and deep vein thrombosis patients, Mechanical Thrombectomy (MT), was carried out successfully in the Interventional Neurology Department of Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, on Monday. This is the first time that the procedure has been carried out, without any outside help, in a government medical college in Kerala.
The endovascular procedure, which removes a clot from a patient's artery, was carried out on a 70-year-old stroke patient. It was on Sunday, September 22, that the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Medical College with severe weakness in his limbs.
"Preliminary examination revealed that the patient had suffered a stroke. Tests were carried out immediately, and Intravenous Thrombolysis (IVT) was done to melt the clot. It was then that Mechanical Thrombectomy was carried out. After the procedure was successfully done, the patient is being monitored. He is recuperating fast," an official release said. The MT is usually done on patients whose clots are found in larger blood vessels that lead to the brain.
The successful completion of the procedure in a government tertiery hospital is expected to cut down costs in a dramatic way, at least by half. In a private hospital, the same procedure would cost between Rs one lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.
In an MT procedure, small incision is made on the wrist or abdomen or groin to access the artery, and through this a catheter is inserted and guided to the clot. The catheter pierces through the clot and then it is pulled out.
MT is used mainly to treat Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Ischemic stroke. DVT is a blood clot that forms in an artery, often in the legs. Ischemic Stroke happens when a blood clot forms in an artery leading to the brain, or in any artery in any other area of the body tht is then somehow transferred to a brain artery. These clots smother the blood supply to the brain.
The procedure was carried out by a team comprising emeritus professor Dr Thomas Iype, Neurology Department head Dr Chitra, Dr Ram Mohan, Dr Sunil D, Dr R Dileep, Dr Praveen Panicker, Dr Ramya P, and Dr Vineetha V S.
The Neurology Department of the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College has already been upgraded into a Comprehensive Stroke Centre. A fellowship programme in association with the Stroke & Neurointervention Foundation (SNIF) chaired by the renowned neurologist Dr Shakir Husain Hakim is also being conducted by th Centre.
