A MUN professor is excited about a new medical procedure that can make a life-saving difference for people at risk of a stroke.
Dr. Michelle Ploughman, an associate professor of biomedical sciences with the Faculty of Medicine, says one advancement she is seeing is called endovascular therapy.
Ploughman says it is relatively new to Newfoundland and Labrador, having only been available for the last year or so.
She says the treatment is part of a large trial supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Essentially, she explains it involves a coil that is snaked up through the artery and into the brain. It can grab a blood clot that is blocking supply to the brain and pull it out. She calls it “amazing” and not just life-saving, but “quality-of-life saving.”