Brain stents for stroke patients offer new hope this holiday season

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's common for heart attack patients to get stents in their arteries, but can you do the same for brain stroke patients?

Well, one procedure is gaining more and more acceptance, and this holiday season, one local man who's recovering from the procedure said it feels like a miracle.

On a Friday afternoon in 2022, 76-year-old Cornelius Albert was at his cardiologist's office at Cedars-Sinai when suddenly, he fell back on the exam table in tears.

"I was looking at my wife wanting to speak and I was trying to raise my arms, but I couldn't raise my arm, and I couldn't speak," recalled Albert.

That scary event was the culmination of six years of dizzy spells and an irregular heartbeat.

"He was having dizziness every day. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't drive," said Dr. Michael Alexander, the Vice Chair of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai.

At first, doctors thought it was vertigo. Later, Albert was told he needed a pacemaker, which he refused. But on that Friday, his neurologist showed him the results of a recent imaging test.

"You've got a cerebral artery that is 90% closed at the base of your brain," Albert said.

It is an area that controls vision, hearing balance and speech. Albert needed that artery propped open and he needed it done fast.

"We put a tube in the wrist artery, and that goes up into the brain artery. So there's no incision in the head," explained Alexander, who's a leading expert in intracranial stenting. "We don't have to open up the head to put a stent in there, and so it's minimally invasive."

Two recent multi-center studies led by Alexander showed brain stenting to be safe and more effective than medical therapy alone for patients with severe intracranial blockages.

"We're doing five times as many intracranial stents now than we did five years ago," Alexander said.

Albert said the stent was life-changing.

Before, he had to give up driving because of all his symptoms but now, he's back behind the wheel. He said the recovery from the procedure took just a few days.

"Thank God for the advancement of technology and medical science. You know, hopefully, you can save a lot of more lives," said Albert.

Doctors say standard treatment in his case could have led to a debilitating stroke. Albert urges everyone to know the various signs of strokes and don't be afraid to advocate for your own health.