Owen Sound Hospital welcomes new stroke technology

OWEN SOUND, Ont. – Brightshores Health System has introduced Automated CT Perfusion Software at the Owen Sound Hospital, helping to properly identify the type of stroke someone is having. “It represents an advance in our treatment of stroke in that it allows us to see how the brain circulation has failed and what parts of the brain are still alive and salvageable,” said Dr. Brian Young (pictured), a neurologist at the hospital.

The addition to the CT scanner allows them to look at the brain tissue and know how to treat the patient, depending on if it’s hemorrhagic or ischemic.

“It allows us to be precise about how much the brain tissue is suffering,” he said. “That tells us what part of the brain has already died and what part is still alive but suffering from lack of blood flow. The brain takes time to die and we try to intervene to salvage the brain that’s starved.”

The hospital sees around 400 stroke patients per year.

“Time is brain as they say,” said Young. “The sooner we can treat the patient, the better the outcome.”

Moving forward, the hope is for capital funding to become available to add the technology to the hospital’s MRI machine, further improving the award-winning stroke team.

“We have an excellent rehab program here and we did a study that shows most patients who have strokes actually go home,” he said. “Only a small percentage go to long-term care or die. I think it speaks for itself that this is a really successful program.”

The program was given a stroke distinction award at a recent meeting of the World Stroke Organization.

The new software has been in use since the beginning of February.