The results of a recent study found that the time window for saving stroke victims from disability or death could be expanded to 16 hours. Traditional guidelines set that window at 6 hours.
The key finding is that physicians have more time than they realized to save brain cells using a thrombectomy to remove a clot. The study included 182 patients at 38 U.S. hospitals. Ninety days after treatment, 45% of thrombectomy patients were well enough to be “functionally independent,” compared with 17% of those who didn’t have the procedure. The study results were published on January 24, 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: The New York Times.