RNS: Brain surgery without the surgery? July 2006
TIME: 1:53
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URL: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/hmbrain.htm
Brain surgery without the surgery?
New tools & techniques mean more patients can get help
Aneurysms, blocked blood vessels and more can be treated using minimally invasive techniques, preventing deadly or disabling strokes, say U-M experts
Suggested lead: Doctors can do more than ever to find and fix the problems that cause many strokes — before a stroke ever happens. And they can do it without ever having to open up the skull. It’s brain surgery without the surgery, and according to U-M doctors, it’s allowing many patients to reduce their risk of a stroke, including those who wouldn’t be able to withstand a brain operation. Here’s Andi McDonnell with more...
Carol Zielinski was shocked when she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm, the same condition that killed her grandmother and brother before the age of 40, and her sister at the age of 52. She tells us…
“When they told me, I mean my first thoughts were that I probably will die shortly because I knew that, you know, my brother and sister, I mean, I just figured if I got a headache, I was gone. I just really didn’t think there was much chance.”
But new technology offered 68-year-old Zielinski hope for survival.
Dr. Greg Thompson (M.D.), Chief of Cerebrovascular Surgery at the University of Michigan Health System, explains…
“Traditionally, aneurysms are treated through open surgery done through an opening in the skull. Nowadays, there’s a minimally invasive treatment that we offer for many of our patients, which is essentially treatment through the blood vessels to the aneurysm itself.”
It’s brain surgery without the surgery, also called minimally invasive, or endovascular treatment. And it’s allowing many patients to reduce their risk of a stroke — including those who wouldn’t be able to withstand a brain operation.
One of the newest options – called the Wingspan intracranial stent – is the first device designed to help doctors open up clogged blood vessels in the brain.
To implant this tiny wire mesh tube in Zielinski, Dr. Thompson threaded a series of catheters through her blood vessels, navigating to find the vessels carrying blood to her brain.
Once he got to the aneurysm, he carefully placed a small coil in the balloon of the aneurysm, and then the stent to hold the blood vessel open. In a short time, a clot formed around the coil, sealing off the aneurysm and preventing blood flow to it, thus preventing rupture.
Today, Zielinski’s health continues to progress, and she says she’s now looking forward to a long life with her children and grandchildren.
Andi Mcdonnell, U-M Health System News.
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