: For the first time, a government hospital in the State will be able to manage stroke patients using telemedicine facilities with expert neurology advice.
With at least five stroke patients turning up on an average every day at the District General Hospital, the hospital had devised a system for management of stroke for poor patients reaching here.
Calling it telestroke, patients would be managed in the hospital without sending them to advanced centres that would cause time delays. If the patient is brought in within four hours of the stroke, the clot in the blood vessels cutting of supply to brain cells could be dissolved by administering tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which is known as clot busting agent, on the advice of an expert from an advanced centre.
And the expertise would be made available in an agreement with the Department of Stroke Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
Scientifically called systemic thrombolytic agent, the clot buster enzyme could become a deciding factor in keeping away paralysing effect of the stroke.
People are now aware of angioplasties (or stenting) to remove the blocks in heart vessels, but there is little awareness about managing stroke that works on the same principle where time is of importance in getting the patient to a treatment centre, said G. Manoj, senior consultant, General Medicine, District General Hospital.
The cost of tPA and the expertise in using it being a limiting factor for poor patients, both these would be provided at no cost at the GH, said Dr. Manoj. Government would provide the medicine costing Rs. 45,000 through the Karunya scheme.
A CT scan and a scoring system for stroke management based on the National Health System (European) would be made available in real time to the experts in Amrita, who would be able to see the patient and suggest administering tPA.
It will be a management that will have better outcome for patients from being bed-ridden to a walking state, said Dr. Vivek Nambiar, heading Stroke Medicine, AIMS.
