Deans' stroke musings: Procedure gives patients with A-fib who can't take blood thinners alternative to reduce stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Procedure gives patients with A-fib who can't take blood thinners alternative to reduce stroke

For those of you with a-fib, ask your doctor first.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-procedure-patients-a-fib-blood-thinners.html
Patients with atrial fibrillation (A-fib) who cannot take blood thinners now have an alternative to reduce their risk of stroke, which is five times more common in people with the rhythm disorder. The non-surgical procedure works by tying off the left atrial appendage (LAA), the source of most blood clots leading to stroke in patients with A-fib. Northwestern Medicine heart rhythm specialists from the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute were the first to perform this procedure in Illinois.

"Traditionally, surgery was required to close off the LAA. Now we have the ability to safely and permanently close it using a minimally invasive, non-surgical approach," said Brad Knight, MD, medical director of the Center for Heart Rhythm Disorders at the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. "This is an innovative method that has the potential to revolutionize the field of stroke prevention in patients with cardiac rhythm disorders."
The procedure, known as LAA occlusion, is performed using the FDA-approved LARIAT Suture Delivery Device. Doctors access the LAA by inserting a catheter, or thin tube, under the rib cage into the sac around the heart through which the suture to tie off the LAA is delivered. Another catheter is advanced through a blood vessel in the groin up into the heart, and positioned inside the LAA to help guide the suture over the LAA. The outpatient procedure eliminates the number one source of heart related stroke, while avoiding the potentially serious side effects associated with blood thinners.