In honor of May, Stroke Awareness Month, Culicchia Neurological Interventional Radiologist Robert C. Dawson reflected on the current state of stroke treatment. Tremendous strides have been made but Dr. Dawson insists that anyone who suspects that they or a loved one is having a stroke should call 911 – F.A.S.T.
Video transcript:
“Over the past 30 years or so, we made enormous strides in the treatment of acute stroke. This started off with the so-called clot buster drugs. And before I even got here 25 years ago, I was in on the initial trials with the thrombo active drugs, so-called clot busters. It was a major step, but it still left us a lot short. And now the majority of my work, and really the majority of the acute stroke work, is done in the area of acute stroke rescue with catheter-based therapies to pull the clots out. It’s clear that incrementally we’re getting better every year. We’ve expanded the indications for such therapies and gotten better with our device development. They’re now 10 or 12 companies that are making things to help us with our jobs.”