The Department of Neurosurgery at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) organised a simulator workshop and hands-on training for mechanical thrombectomy (surgical removal of a blood clot from blood vessel) for stroke recently. Inaugurating the workshop, CMCH Dean A. Nirmala said that stroke management was one of the pillars of the Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Initiative (TAEI). Management for thrombotic stroke is being given in TAEI under the SCRIPT module (Stroke Care by Rapid Intervention with Plasminogen Activator and Thrombectomy). The patient suffering from stroke has to be shifted to a hospital with stroke management facilities at the earliest of the onset of symptoms for good recovery from stroke. Total recovery is possible if the patient reaches the hospital within three hours of the stroke and treatment initiated immediately, she said. According to her, the clot blocking the blood flow to the brain can be lysed with drugs and in certain patients. The clot removal can also be done by endovascular mechanical thrombectomy in a biplanar catheterisation laboratory at the CMCH. High-end procedures such as diagnostic angiograms, brain aneurysm coiling, pulmonary/uterine artery embolization, mechanical thrombectomy for stroke peripheral vessel stenting and angioplasty being offered to needy patients using the cath lab. A total of 625 patients were benefited from biplane cathlab at the CMCH since its inception from February 2019. These treatments which cost around ₹3 to 7 lakh in private hospitals are done free of cost at the CMCH under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme, she said. Around 50 doctors and post graduates from the Departments of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Radiology and Vascular Surgery attended the simulation workshop.
