News
NATIONALLY KNOWN EXPERTS RELEASE EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS FOR STROKE AWARENESS MONTH
Videos Are First and Second in Series from Neurological Surgery, P.C.
ROCKVILLE, CENTRE, NY, May 13, 2011 – Nationally known stroke experts John Pile-Spellman, M.D., F.A.C.R, and Jonathan L. Brisman, M.D., have released two educational videos on stroke warning signs and treatment, to coincide with Stroke and High Blood Pressure Awareness Month.
The videos are the first and second in a new educational series produced for Neurological Surgery, P.C. (NSPC). With offices throughout Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties, New York, NSPC is one of the Northeast’s largest private practices of leading neurosurgeons and allied specialists.
In the first video, Dr. Pile-Spellman dramatically introduces the warning signs of stroke as “F.A.S.T.”:
- F - Face: Is one side of the face drooping down?
- A - Arm: Can the person raise both arms?
- S - Speech: Is speech slurred or confusing; is the person unable to speak?
- T - Time: Time is critical. Call 911 immediately.
If any of these symptoms are present, Dr. Pile-Spellman urges viewers to call 911 FAST.
The second video features Dr. Brisman discussing mechanical embolectomy, a new option for treating some patients with ischemic stroke who arrive late at the emergency room. Also known as mechanical thrombectomy, this procedure uses a microcatheter and tiny “retrieval” device fed through the catheter to break up and remove the blood clot that is causing ischemic stroke. Ischemic stroke, by far the most common type, is caused by blockage of a blood vessel leading to the brain. The procedure can be done up to eight hours after a stroke’s onset, when it is past the three-hour “window of opportunity” for clot-busting medication tPA. Dr. Brisman and Dr. Pile-Spellman are performing this procedure in a number of Long Island hospitals in which the treatment was not previously offered.
Dr. Pile-Spellman is an international leader in interventional neuroradiology, a field of medicine that uses image-guided catheter-based techniques to treat diseases of the blood vessels of the brain and spine. He joined Neurological Surgery, P.C. from Columbia University Medical Center, where he was vice-chair of research and director of interventional MRI. With more than 150 peer review scientific papers to his name, Dr. Pile-Spellman is actively involved in stroke research. He chairs the board of directors of H.O.P.E. for Stroke, a nonprofit organization that provides support to stroke victims and their caregivers.
Dr. Brisman was the first endovascular neurosurgeon on Long Island, a subspecialty that combines neurosurgery with interventional neuroradiology. One of only approximately 100 surgeons in the U.S. trained in both endovascular and microneurosurgical techniques, Dr. Brisman authored recent landmark papers in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet Neurology on disorders of the brain’s blood vessels. He has an upcoming book chapter that discusses the latest guidelines on stroke treatment.
To see the videos, visit NSPC’s YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/NeurosurgeryLI.
