Haaretz Errors in Sharon Reporting

Is your neurologist consultant familiar with the MERCI Retrieval System, developed by Concentric Medical? It was
pioneered on a clinical level by Dr. Sidney Starkman at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and is now used in over 50 hospitals in the United States.

Using a corkscrew-like device, this system mechanically removes blood clots that cause damage to the brain. It is much more effective than the clot-busting treatment (TPA?) currently in use at Hadassah. Besides saving Israel millions of dollars in nursing home costs, MERCI could spare us the trauma of having a future Prime Minister suffer the catastrophic damage that Sharon has. With the option of removing a thrombosis mechanically, there would be less of a need to take risky preemptive action with agressive anticoagulation.

Here is a short aritcle on this system, from the magazine "Popular Science:"

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown/2004/personalhealth/article/0,22221,768310,00.html


"THE MERCI RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
Uncorking a quick method for dislodging blood closts"

"Blood clots account for nearly 85 percent of the 700,000 strokes diagnosed every year in the U.S. This new corkscrew-like tool (MERCI), engineered by scientists at Concentric Medical in Mountain View, California, is the quickest and most effective way to remove them. The current standard therapy, a clot-dissolving drug called Activase, is administered to fewer than 5 percent of stroke victims mostly because they arrive at the hospital too late (the medication loses its effectiveness three hours after the onset of a stroke). Activase also takes an hour or more to work. The Retrieval System, approved by the FDA in August and now available at 50 U.S. hospitals, can be used for up to eight hours and removes the blockage immediately."