For sometime now, brain stroke patients in the West could avert brain damage as neurosurgeons used a sophisticated retriever stent to clear the blood clot from blocked arteries and restore blood flow within 24 hours. However, this device is out of reach for most Indians despite brain strokes increasing among them. That’s all set to change with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, now conducting a trial with an upgraded device that’s equipped to remove all kinds of blood clots, is better at opening blocked arteries and may cost one-fourth the original price.1

The clinical trial, GRASSROOT (Gravity Stent-Retriever System for Reperfusion of Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke Trial), is looking at the effectiveness and accessibility of a new generation of advanced stent-retriever devices that can be used in mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive stroke surgery to clear artery blockage in the brain. According to Dr Shailesh Gaikwad, professor and head, Department of Neuroimaging and Interventional Neuroradiology, Neurosciences Centre, AIIMS, and one of the investigators of the trial, “We are finding out how the device works on the Indian population. The new stent-retriever has been designed specifically to tackle the unique features of a stroke clot in the Indian population, given that our arteries are narrower.” The new device was first used on August 25. The patient is doing well.