Clot removal shows better results than drug treatment

A new study adds to evidence that a technique that uses a catheter to physically grab blood clots leads to better results than drugs that break clots up.

Many strokes occur when blood clots block blood vessels in the brain. The new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers at McMaster University, used data from eight randomized clinical trials involving 2,423 stroke patients. Of those, 1,313 received endovascular thrombectomy, or physical removal of the clots. The remaining patients received the current standard of care, treatment with the drug tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA.

The drug must be administered within hours of symptoms; thrombectomy has a longer window. The analysis found that 45 percent of the people whose clots were physically removed were functionally independent 90 days later, compared to 32 percent in the tPA group. Thrombectomy was also more likely to open blood vessels than tPA.

However, patients in the two groups were about equally likely to have a symptomatic bleeding problem in the brain or die.

- Stacey Burling