Stroke Treatment

Treating Stroke

Strokes are fast.  We’re faster. At Florida Medical Center, we treat strokes as a medical emergency.  Once a “code stroke” is called our stroke team is activated and ready to provide our patients with rapid treatment.  Most strokes are caused by blood clots plugging a blood vessel or artery in the brain.  This type of stroke may be treated with a clot busting drug called IV tPA (intravenous tissue plasminogen activator).  The drug has been found to be most effective when administered within three hours of symptom onset.  Time is extremely important when stopping a stroke in progress and minimizing the potential damage.

Endovascular Treatment

Our Interventional Neurology team provides a minimally invasive, endovascular approach to treating strokes, aneurysms, and neurovascular diseases of the brain and spine. Using catheters and radiology, our interventional neurologists perform minimally invasive procedures, such as stent placement and embolization.

These procedures are performed under the guidance of advanced-ray monitors.  Recent advances in imaging capabilities enable our highly-trained interventional neurologists to treat blocked arteries of the brain by removing, breaking-up, or even sucking out the blood clot.

Our facility has invested millions of dollars in neurointerventional equipment and devices. With the assistance of this equipment, our physicians are dedicated to saving lives and allowing patients to return to a normal life, in some cases without any loss of function.

At Florida Medical Center, the following endovascular procedures are available:

• Cerebral Angiography (Angiogram): allows us to view how blood is flowing within the brain.  Our interventional neurologist inserts a catheter into a large blood vessel and injects contrast dye.  The contrast dye causes the blood vessels to appear on the X-ray image.
• Thrombectomy: an innovative surgical procedure used to remove blood clots from arteries and veins. Blood clots can disrupt the normal flow of blood to a part of the body, causing life-threatening conditions such as pulmonary embolism or an acute stroke.  During the procedure, our interventional neurologist inserts a catheter into the patient’s blood vessel to remove the blockage and restore blood flow to the affected area.
• Carotid Artery Angioplasty/Stenting: used to treat carotid artery stenosis, the narrowing in one or both of the carotid arteries caused by the buildup of plaque on the inside of the artery.  During this procedure, our interventional neurologist inserts a catheter into a groin artery and guides the catheter to the affected carotid artery in your neck.  A small balloon at the tip of the catheter is then inflated to clear the passageway.  In some cases, a stent (tiny mesh tube) may be placed in the affected area to keep the artery open.
• Endovascular Treatment for Brain Aneurysms and AVM’s: Aneurysms occur when there is a bulging area in an artery caused by a weakness in the artery’s wall. Brain aneurysms, also called cerebral aneurysms, affect the artery that supplies blood to the brain. Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) are abnormal tangles of arteries and veins within the vascular system. Endovascular procedures involve the insertion of a catheter through the groin to treat these conditions. Our interventional neurologist may use different techniques to treat your aneurysm or AVM depending on your unique situation.
• Intracranial Stenting: Intracranial vessel stenting, or simply intracranial stenting, is a minimally invasive procedure to treat severe cerebral artery stenosis. Cerebral artery stenosis is a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the brain. Intracranial stenting involves placing a wire mesh tube (stent) in a narrowed artery. The stent expands to open the artery. It stays in place to prevent more narrowing.

Our Neurology Team

Many professionals and programs come together under the Neuroscience Center to provide the highest quality of neurological care possible. This includes the program’s highly trained and skilled nurses.  Nurses that specialize in neuroscience nursing are trained in the diagnosis and treatment of actual or potential patient and family responses to nervous system function and dysfunction across the healthcare continuum.

Florida Medical Center’s neuroscience nurses are proficient in caring for patients with neurological disorders.  Patients who experience a severe neurological or neurosurgical illness receive around-the-clock monitoring and care by Florida Medical Center’s multidisciplinary team has specialized training in acute and ongoing management of stroke patients and caregiver needs.

The team is comprised of:

• Interventional Neurologists
• Clinical Neurologists
• Neurosurgeons
• Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners
• Registered Nurses
• Emergency Room Physicians
• Radiologists
• Intensivists
• Pharmacists
• Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists
• Respiratory Therapists