ISC 2026 | Unmet needs in stroke care: effective neuroprotective treatments to reduce brain tissue injury
Andrew Russman, DO, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, discusses the significant unmet need for effective neuroprotective or neurorestorative treatments to reduce brain tissue injury and promote recovery after stroke. He notes that current medication strategies have limited benefits. This interview took place at the 2026 International Stroke Congress (ISC), held in New Orleans, LA.
These works are owned by Magdalen Medical Publishing (MMP) and are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All rights are reserved.
Transcript
I think when we are trying to manage stroke, you know, we look at the full continuum. You know, there’s primary prevention, trying to optimize stroke risk factor modification. When we’re thinking about patients getting the care they need, we want to limit disability as much as we can. So we want to get education out there. We want to tell people that they’ve got to call or activate EMS and get to the emergency department as soon as possible...
I think when we are trying to manage stroke, you know, we look at the full continuum. You know, there’s primary prevention, trying to optimize stroke risk factor modification. When we’re thinking about patients getting the care they need, we want to limit disability as much as we can. So we want to get education out there. We want to tell people that they’ve got to call or activate EMS and get to the emergency department as soon as possible. And we need to provide them an optimal strategy to try and restore blood flow to the brain. The greatest unmet need is the ability, once we have done that, once we have provided that kind of reperfusion strategy, to try and reduce the amount of injury to the brain tissue through some type of neuroprotective or neurorestorative process to help people to recover, to return to their life and their function as best as possible. Living with disability is the greatest burden upon our stroke population, and the greatest need is to find ways to reduce that disability. Unfortunately, there are no medication strategies that really provide robust benefit in either neuroprotection or in neurorestorative care. The most effective technique we currently have is to reduce the amount of disability by restoring blood flow as effectively as possible and reducing the amount of tissue injury from the primary clot or the primary obstruction of blood vessel. We really need an opportunity to help limit the amount of injury and help patients recover. And there isn’t an agent or a group of agents that show excessive promise in this area.
This transcript is AI-generated. While we strive for accuracy, please verify this copy with the video.
Read more...
