Sierra Vista Brings Stroke Care to San Luis Obispo County

Mechanical Thrombectomy at Sierra Vista saves precious time during stroke events

San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center is proud to announce a new standard of care for local stroke victims.

A specialized group of interventional neurologists has joined the Sierra Vista team to bring Endovascular Treatment to the Central Coast. With this new service and skilled specialists, emergency air and ambulance transports out of the county may be eliminated and precious time saved.

As a leader in advanced stroke care, Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center knows treatment time is critical for stroke patients. When minutes count, having an advanced stroke center with the technology and capability to care for patients can make all the difference.

Our local interventional neurology team is on-call around the clock to provide San Luis Obispo County residents with an endovascular approach to treating strokes, drastically improving treatment time and helping to minimize brain damage. When you arrive at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center at the first sign of stroke, our specialized stroke response team has the enhanced ability to provide you with the highest level of stroke care available in our area.

When it comes to stroke, “Time is Brain.” That’s because there is a small window of time administered for treatment to be effective. Previously, only the use of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) was available in San Luis Obispo County to treat ischemic stroke patients. tPA works by dissolving the clot and improving blood flow to the part of the brain being deprived of blood flow. Now, the team at Sierra Vista is also offering an endovascular treatment called mechanical thrombectomy, which allows physicians to directly remove blood clots more quickly and effectively than tPA alone.

With mechanical thrombectomy, trained physicians are able to thread a catheter through an artery in the groin up to the blocked artery in the brain and remove any large blood clots with a stent retriever. Both tPA and mechanical thrombectomy need to occur within a few hours in order to be effective and improve chances for stroke survival and recovery. The use of mechanical thrombectomy at Sierra Vista essentially eliminates the need for emergency ambulance or air transport out of the area and saves precious time.