Modern Medicine In NJ: New Cooper Suite Treats Strokes Faster

CAMDEN, NJ — The health care workers at a new, dedicated Acute Stroke and Neuro Interventional Suite at Cooper University Health Care's Camden Campus say their new unit improves diagnosis and treatment times for patients with stroke, thus improving their chance of survival and survival without disability.

Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The new unit, which Cooper University Health Care said was the first of its kind in the United States, uses biplane imaging. With this process, "doctors follow the path of blood flow through a patient’s vessels through multiple views and create a roadmap for reaching and treating the precise location of disease," Cooper University Health Care said.

Treatment in the new suite consists of "using a minimally invasive tube, inserting the tube into the clot and sucking the clot out," Tudor Jovin, Cooper Neurological Institute Medical Director, said in an interview with Patch.

The diagnosis and screening process utilized by the new suite's employees allows stroke patients to be evaluated and treated right in the emergency room no matter what time of the day they show up, greatly increasing their chances of a full and complete recovery, according to Jovin.

"We know that for every 15 minutes that you gain in treating a patient [who is having a stroke], you increase the chance of the patient being independent," he said.

Before the new suite was built, patients who were thought to be having a stroke often received a physical evaluation, underwent imaging studies and had a doctor review the images and then the best way to proceed begab. Then if a stroke was confirmed, other health professionals would treat the patient with a thrombectomy, which removes the blood clot from the vessel that had the clot, thus restoring blood flow to the brain., according to Jovin.

"That takes a long time," Jovin said, adding that some health systems still utilize that process. In addition, in some hospitals, each step of that process occurs on a different floor.

Delays in stroke treatment may cause a patient to succumb to the stroke or experience long-lasting effects from it, such as speech and movement difficulties, according to the American Heart Association.

The new Acute Stroke and Neuro Interventional Suite can also be used in the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral aneurysms, carotid artery disease and other vascular conditions affecting the brain and spinal cord, according to Cooper University Health Care.

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