Columbus Regional Health is proud to announce the completion of a new biplane angiography suite for interventional radiology.  This equipment is the only one of its kind in Columbus. The  biplane suite enables our interventional radiologists to perform cutting edge minimally-invasive procedures ranging from acute stroke care, interventional oncology, spine interventions, trauma, peripheral vascular disease and hepatobiliary procedures.
 
CRH has the only endovascular stoke center in an 80 miles radius and has been committed to improving stroke outcomes and the completion of the new biplane angiography room provides physicians the best equipment to accomplish this goal.  On the first day the new biplane room was operational - a patient was treated for a large vessel stroke, is on track to have a complete recovery.
 
Biplane angiography enables physicians to use fluoroscopy, low dose real time x-rays, to navigate through multiple organ systems without making surgical incisions. The major of these interventions are performed through 1 cm incisions which facilitates rapid recovery times and lower infection rates. Additionally, the endovascular access used for most interventions can be acquired in just a few minutes.
 
Strokes are divided into two large categories - ischemic strokes resulting from a blockage of blood supply to the brain and hemorrhagic strokes caused by bleeding in or around the brain.  In the past few years, there have been major advancements in the treatment of ischemic strokes.  For years, the treatment of ischemic strokes centered around giving patients an intravenous injection of a clot busting medication.  
 
However, for a variety of reasons, some patients are not candidates for this drug.  Also, this medication does not work well for large ischemic strokes where the blockage is in a large vessel in the brain.  The latter are the most devastating ischemic strokes resulting in the largest clinical deficits.  
 
Through advancements in technology, medical devices and years of research, there is a new endovascular approach to treating ischemic strokes. This involves navigating clot retrieval devices from a peripheral artery into the occluded vessel in the brain.
 
Interventional radiologists can then use an array of devices to manually remove clots from the brain. When performed early enough, this can reduce or sometimes even eliminate the damage to brain cells. In large trials, for every 2.5 patients treated for large vessel intracranial occlusions, one of those patients had a positive life-changing outcome.  This is a remarkable achievement for patients who previously had very limited treatment options for such a catastrophic disease.