At Henry Ford,delivery of care is provided via emergency, medical, endovascular, surgical and clinical trial stroke treatments
When treating stroke, no factor is more critical than time. When a patient with stroke symptoms arrives at Henry Ford Emergency Centers in Detroit, Dearborn, West Bloomfield or Sterling Heights, the Ford Acute Stroke Treatment (FAST) team jumps into action. The team works in concert to determine what kind of stroke occurred, what parts of the brain are being affected, and what medical, endovascular and/or surgical stroke treatments will best help each patient. The goal of the FAST team is to assess, triage, and make a stroke treatment decision within 60 minutes of a patient's arrival to the emergency room. Neurosurgeons and neuro-interventional specialists stand at the ready to provide emergency therapies to stroke patients as needed.
Based on the stroke diagnostic results, the patient's medical history and current condition, and time from stroke symptom onset, patients with acute ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke are triaged in the Emergency Department for immediate medical, endovascular or surgical treatment for stroke.
Neurology and Emergency Medicine stroke specialists provide standard intravenous and advanced intra-arterial t-PA therapy, as well as innovative clinical trial stroke treatments including intravenous abciximab (Reopro), a clot-busting therapy combination of t-PA with other agents such as statins, and oral sildenafil, an investigational brain regeneration therapy.
Endovascular specialists provide an array of therapy options for patients with ischemic stroke, ruptured brain aneurysms, Arteriovenous Malformations (AVMs), and carotid occlusive disease:
Intracranial vessel angioplasty is also utilized in patients with high grade narrowing of the intracranial vessels who keep developing symptoms of stroke despite maximal medical management.
Patients in need of surgical intervention benefit from Henry Ford Neurosurgery's most experienced cerebrovascular surgical team. Our team has one of the leading brain aneurysm and arteriovenous malformation practices in the U.S. Patients presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage related to aneurysms undergo emergent cerebral angiography to diagnose the cerebral aneurysm and plan treatment.
Treatment is needed to prevent re-rupture and may consist of surgery for aneurysm clipping or, for selected aneurysms, intravascular coil placement. Following the procedure the patients are admitted to the Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit where they undergo continuous monitoring of intracranial pressure and daily Transcranial Doppler measurements to check for vasospasm.
For patients with AVMs, surgical treatment is required. Those with small and/or surgically inaccessible AVMs may be treated with radiosurgery. Other surgical specialties for stroke include carotid endarterectomies for ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attacks caused by carotid artery occlusive disease; revascularization for ischemic disease carried out by vascular surgeons and cerebrovascular surgeons; and surgery for intracerebral hemorrhage, including many cases in which neurosurgeons collaborate with neurologists to manage hemorrhagic stroke secondary to hypertension.
The multidisciplinary stroke team approach for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke ensures each Henry Ford patient receives the most appropriate and effective treatment for stroke, no matter how complex the case.
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Stroke Treatment | Stroke Center | Neurodegenerative ...