Mechanical treatment is a landmark for stroke victims

A new mechanical treatment for stroke victims developed in Galway allows doctors to push a thread into a patient’s brain and, using a basket, remove a brain clot.

Eamon Brady, chief executive of Neuvari, the company behind the breakthrough, said the device was inserted into a patient after a doctor made an incision in the groin and threaded the “stent basket” device into the femoral artery.

The device is fed into the femoral artery, on to the aorta, and up to carotid artery which connects to the brain. Once the stent arrives at the brain it deploys a basket which captures the clot causing the stroke. It can remove the blockage, restoring the normal blood flow to the brain.