Mobile Stroke Unit improves, quickens care

A new Mobile Stroke Unit launches this summer, designed to save time, administer quicker treatments and bring top-of-the–line technology to a stroke victim’s front door.

The 14-ton van is the first mobile unit of its kind and is capable of conducting and producing advanced quality imaging for stroke diagnosis and noninvasive CT-angiography. The unit, a partnership among the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Le Bonheur and area hospitals, will be used to transfer pediatric and adult patients.

For the first time, standard stroke care will be available in a mobile setting, creating the ability to diagnose and launch treatment, which can include tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treatment and the potent blood pressure drug nicardipine within the critical first hour. Some patients may receive endovascular interventions, neurosurgery or neuro-critical care directly from the pre-hospital arena.

The 36-foot unit can hold up to nine people, including nurse practitioners, a physician and family members. The van also will be staffed with a neurologist who specializes in treating stroke patients.

“It’s like a small hospital outside the main hospital,” said Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital Pediatric Stroke Director and Pediatric Neurologist Paras Bhattarai, MD. “This can change the scenario on how strokes can be treated because time is money with strokes. If you delay the treatment of a stroke then it’s almost the same as not doing anything.”

While similar mobile stroke units allow for quick, initial treatment and preparation for an emergency room arrival, the Mobile Stroke Unit means a patient will be prepped to go immediately to the catherization laboratory, intensive care unit or the hospital’s stroke unit and completely bypass the emergency room.

The time saved can be life changing, Bhattarai said. In a field of medicine where seconds count, the Mobile Stroke Unit can provide faster, advanced treatment while lowering the risk of morbidity and mortality.

“If you don’t have a Mobile Stroke Unit, treatment can be delayed by at least an hour,” Bhattarai said. “There’s a big difference between treating one hour before and one hour later because the time window for the patient is very short.”

Stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death and leading cause of disability in the United States according to the American Stroke Association. African Americans have nearly twice the risk of a first-ever stroke and have a much higher death rate. Stroke is particularly prevalent in Memphis’ Shelby County, which has a stroke rate 37 percent higher than the national average.

Mobile Stroke Unit director Joe Rike said the van will be a benefit to all stroke patients by giving them better, faster care while being transported to the hospital.

“It’s very exciting for the whole community and everyone who sees it or hears about it,” Rike said. “We’ll be able to deliver standard care normally done in a hospital and bring it to a person’s doorstep.”