Following a stroke caused by a blood clot, clot-dissolving treatment can be safe for octogenarians, suggests a new German study. The main risk of this treatment — bleeding in the brain — appears to be no higher than in younger patients.
Dr. Peter A. Ringleb, from Ruprecht-Karls-Universitaet, Heidelberg, and colleagues analyzed outcomes after clot-dissolving “thrombolytic” therapy in 378 octogenarians who suffered a stroke, compared with those of 90 stroke patients who were younger than 80 years.
Brain bleeds occurred in 5.3 percent of patients under age 80 years, compared with 6.7 percent of the patients in their 80s — not a statistically significant difference — the researchers report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.
However, more of the older patients died within the following 3 months. The mortality rate was 29 percent among the octogenarians versus 13 percent among younger patients, the researchers note.
Overall, favorable outcomes were much more common among younger patients (42 percent) than among octogenarians (19 percent).
“Our study confirms that thrombolytic therapy can be performed in elderly patients” the investigators conclude. ”However, this has not reduced mortality or increased favorable outcome.”
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