“Strokes are the third leading cause of death in developed countries and the first cause of disability in the adult population. It doesn’t have to be this way,” says Prof. José Cohen, world-renowned Hadassah endovascular neurosurgeon and neuro-radiologist. He adds, “Someday soon, I hope, those statistics will no longer be accurate.”Until recently, neurologists and neurosurgeons believed that most strokes could not be prevented and that all a physician could do was to deal with the aftermath.
Hadassah’s physicians, surgeons, and radiologists, however, are successfully preventing and treating stroke by engineering innovations and refining procedures and practices. Only Hadassah and a few other major medical centers around the world are providing these treatments to their patients!
A Hadassah team was part of the first group in the world to use intracranial stents (an expandable hollow tube) for cerebral aneurisms and intracranial arterial sclerosis. Hadassah is one of the first centers in the world to receive training and the license to use certain technological devices to remove cerebral clots in patients with major arterial occlusions.
Breakthrough studies have shown that the mortality rate of stroke patients is reduced by as much as 30 percent when patients are treated in designated stroke units, rather than medical or even neurological wards. Given its expertise, Hadassah is establishing a Stroke Center of Excellence, which will focus on two medical interventions: Endovascular Neurosurgery and Interventional Neuro-Radiology (INR).
This new Center will also enable dedicated surgeons, physicians, and technicians to embark on extensive training programs, and to delve more deeply into the causes, treatments, and prevention of strokes.
Endovascular Neurosurgery involves entering the body through an incision in the femoral artery, a threadlike avenue three millimeters wide. Following this incredibly narrow path, neurosurgeons work their way to the brain to reach the destination of the damage, restoring cranial circulation and saving brain function. INR procedures employ a minimally invasive approach to treat vascular diseases of the central nervous system.
Hadassah urgently needs to replace the existing five-year-old Angiograph with a Biplane Digital Angiographer, which includes the latest technological medical advancements that are crucial for INF procedures.
The new complex radiological set-up consists of a sophisticated x-ray machine with different computers, which are extremely sensitive in detecting and treating small vessels of the brain. This new technology will have a significant effect on the level, accuracy, and speed of patient diagnosis and treatment, and will reduce radiation exposure.
The new Stroke Center will be comprised of:
In the seven years since he came to Hadassah from Argentina, Prof. José Cohen has performed groundbreaking operations, using innovative techniques and imaginative approaches that have remedied situations that were previously considered fatal. Recently, he saved the life of a young soldier, whose vertebral artery was destroyed by a bullet.
