Ultrasound Speeds Drainage of Brain Hemorrhages

Sonothombolysis is a “technique that combines ultrasound pulses and injection of a thombolytic directly into a hemorrhage”. This is a new treatment technique that Doctors are researching at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute in Seattle. Although their results and conclusions are still preliminary, it has appeared to be safe and could be a new way to treat hemorrhages in the brain.

This method has not yet been tested for people with intracerebral hemorrhages just yet, but it has been successful for treating clots in legs and pulmonary emboli. They also, however, have been testing the safety for using this as a treatment. They insert two catheters through a burr hole directly into the intracerebral hemorrhages. In one catheter, low doses of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator were given directly to the clot. Ultrasound pulses were applied through the catheter to help speed the action of the drug. Finally, the dissolved clot drained through the second catheter. Doctor David Newell, MD and co-executive director, wants to administer a clinical trial, with more patients.

I find this article interesting because my older brother had an intracerebral hemorrhage. He was first diagnosed when he was 5 years old. At the time, they thought the brain surgery they did fixed it. However, he woke up one morning to a terrible headache when he was 16. He had multiple surgeries, and the doctors ended up removing part of his brain, replacing it with bovine. My brother is blind in his left field of vision and has a slight speech impediment, apart from that he functions like an average human. The method that Doctor Newell is testing seems less harmful to the brain, and much more focused on getting out just the actual hemorrhage. I hope that more research will be able to be done so that this could be a successful method.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ASA/18688


Eva Szabuniewicz
VTPP 435-501