Surgeons at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are the first in the New York City metropolitan area to successfully implant into the brain arteries a new stent specifically designed to treat high-risk stroke patients who have not previously responded to medical therapy.
The WingspanTM Stent System is used for those individuals diagnosed with intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) -- excess plaque buildup in the brain arteries.
The intracranial stenting procedure involves making a small incision in the patient’s femoral artery. The device is threaded through the patient’s vessels to the location of plaque in the cerebral vessel. A balloon is then expanded to crack the plaque and withdrawn, and the stent is inserted and deployed to open the vessel.
"Stents, which are thin, wire-mesh tubes, have long been used to successfully open the carotid arteries in the neck to prevent stroke. Now they are being used in a similar fashion inside the brain," says Dr. Pierre Gobin, professor of radiology and neurological surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and director of the division of interventional neuroradiology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. "As opposed to carotid stents that are made of stainless steel, this brain stent is designed specifically for the fragile vessels of the brain."