Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals successfully treats a 90 years old stroke patient with Thrombolysis

Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals announced the successful treatment of a 90 years old woman suffering from a stroke with Thrombolysis. Mrs. Harsharan Kaur, a resident of New Delhi, proved that there is no age barrier to thrombolysis in stroke patient.

Thrombolytic therapy is the use of drugs to break up or dissolve blood clots, which are the main cause of both heart attacks and strokes. Thrombolytics work by dissolving a major clot quickly. This helps restart blood flow to the brain and helps prevent damage to the brain tissue. Intravenous Thrombolosis for brain strokes can be performed in the first 4.5 hours, hence it is important that stroke is recognized early and the patient is rushed to the hospital capable for administering thrombolytic therapy. That said, most of the clot busting therapy has excluded patients of above the age of 80 years. This had denied a large population of stroke patients the benefit of an effective therapy. But recent studies have proven the use of intravenous thrombolysis to be effective and safe for the patients even above the age of 80 years.

Addressing the press, Dr. Vinit Suri, Senior Consultant Neurology Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said, “Stroke is a devastating illness at any age. The incidence of stroke increases with advancing age with the risk doubling for every 10 years after the age of 60 years. Intravenous Thrombolysis is a clot busting therapy which has changed the way stroke is managed and has resulted in a significant reduction in death and disability from stroke.”

On 14^th June 2013, Mrs. Kaur set to have a beautiful day ahead when suddenly while speaking on phone she developed a complete paralysis of left arm and left leg with inability to turn her eyes to the left. She was immediately rushed to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals within 2 hours of stroke onset. Urgent investigations revealed that there was a large clot in her brain which threatened to destruct more than half of the right side of her brain. This condition often results in a life threatening stroke with coma and a possible recovery at best to a bedbound or a wheelchair bound state. After a careful assessment of the risk factors, she underwent intravenous thrombolysis treatment within 3 hours of stroke onset under Dr. Suri’s expert care and supervision.

“The patient was unconscious, with complete paralysis of her left arm and leg and we categorized her as critically ill. After careful assessment of the risks we started her with IV thrombolysis. We gave her a Thrombolytic drug to dissolve the blood clot in the brain. The patient responded very well to the treatment and regained near complete strength in her left arm and leg over the next one hour” said Dr.Suri.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr.Priyadarshini Pal Singh, Head of department of Emergency Medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals said,””The emergency triage at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals is geared to identify stroke patients and transport them urgently to the hospital with a mechanism to simultaneously activate the emergency recanalization therapy for stroke patients.”