The McLaren Stroke Network, with programs at multiple McLaren Health Care hospitals throughout the state, has further enhanced its profile as a leader in the care of stroke with its active participation in the EMBOLISE clinical trial, which was recently published in the prestigious and highly influential New England Journal of Medicine and will set a new standard of care for a life-threatening, emergency condition.
“Adjunctive Middle Meningeal Artery Embolization for Subdural Hematoma” was the resulting NEJM article sharing the results of the EMBOLISE trial, which listed several clinical investigators at multiple care and research facilities across the country, including McLaren Health Care and Dr. Aniel Majjhoo, interventional neurologist and McLaren Neurosciences Medical Director.
Subdural hematomas are brain bleeds in which blood collects between layers that surround the brain, leading to the formation of blood clots and increasing pressure on the brain. This damage can lead to symptoms mirroring those of a stroke. Surgery has been the standard approach to treating subdural hematomas, though bleeds would often recur, create complications, and require additional treatment.
As a result of the trial’s research, it was determined that surgery along with an additional, minimally invasive procedure significantly reduce the chances of the bleeds recurring.
“Our stroke program continuously strives to enhance the level of care provided to all patients and to improve those patients’ long-term outcomes,” Dr. Majjhoo said. “A significant component of our program is clinical research and taking an active role in trials that establish results that have an impact that extend far beyond our network and even our state. We are very pleased that our McLaren Stroke Network has earned the reputation that allows us to contribute to such influential research and have a role in determining the best course of treatment to care for strokes and other very serious neurological conditions.”
The EMBOLISE findings in the NEJM marked the second McLaren publication in the journal. Dr. Majjhoo was listed as an author in “Adjunctive Intravenous Argatroban or Eptifibatide for Ischemic Stroke,” published in NEJM in September. He again represented McLaren’s participation in the TESLA clinical trial, which had its results shared in the esteemed medical journal The Journal of the American Medical Association in the study “Thrombectomy for Stroke With Large Infarct on Noncontrast CT.”
These studies published in the NEJM and JAMA, respectively, represent three of what have been more than a dozen published articles featuring the participating expertise of the McLaren Stroke Network — trials that have influenced providers of stroke care around the country and shaped the guidelines of how strokes are treated.
About McLaren Health Care
McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, Michigan, is a $7.3 billion, fully integrated health care delivery system committed to quality, evidence-based patient care and cost efficiency. The McLaren system includes 13 hospitals in Michigan, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, a 640-member employed primary and specialty care physician network, commercial and Medicaid HMOs covering more than 732,838 lives in Michigan and Indiana, home health, infusion and hospice providers, pharmacy services, a clinical laboratory network and a wholly owned medical malpractice insurance company. McLaren operates Michigan’s largest network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by the Karmanos Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. McLaren has 28,000 full-, part-time and contracted employees and more than 113,000 network providers throughout Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Learn more at mclaren.org.