Two novel methods to prevent stroke not effective

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Nov102011

Two novel methods to prevent stroke not effective

Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 03:36PM |

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Two methods that doctors thought would prevent stroke in high risk patients are not effective, according to an article in the New York Times.

According to the article, in the first study, reported in the The Journal of the American Medical Association, physicians performed bypass surgery on patients who had complete blockage of the carotid artery in an attempt to improve blood flow to the brain and prevent stroke. The results showed that patients who received the surgery plus drug regimen were less likely to experience stroke after the first month after surgery; however patients who received the operation were 14.4 percent more likely to experience stroke in the first month after the surgery than those on drug therapy alone.

In the second study, from the New England Journal of Medicine, physicians used a stent to open arteries blocked deep in the brain. Patients who received the stent fared worse than those who received drug therapy alone.

(Sources: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com, September 7, 2011, and November 8, 2011;(Sources: Office of the Inspector General Report, http://oig.hhs.gov/, October 31, 2011; Kaiser Daily Health Policy Project, http://kaiserhealthnews.org, November 9, 2011)