AUBMC Neurosurgeon Offers Promising New Surgery to Stroke Patients

Dr. Joseph Salame

A new breakthrough procedure which opens up blocked vessels that cause stroke has become available at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, which is recognized as one of the first medical centers in the region to offer the treatment.

Neurosurgeon Joseph Salame has successfully treated three patients who had strokes that did not respond to drug therapy. The new technique calls for angioplasty with the use of an FDA-approved stent, which involves entry into blood vessels with a catheter to keep the vessels open.

While endovascular therapy has been in use for a few decades in heart surgery, its use in brain surgery is much more recent. Prior to that, patients with stroke had only one of two options: drug therapy or very high-risk bypass surgery. Now, patients have the option to be treated with the generally safe endovascular therapy.

Salame, who joined AUBMC in July 2007, specializes in microvascular neurosurgery and endovascular therapy and has performed more than 500 such procedures in Canada and the United States. He received his medical degree from the University of Montreal in Canada and specialized in neurosurgery at Sherbrooke University in Canada. He is one of the very first neurosurgeons in the region to perform endovascular brain surgery.

Stroke, which is the sudden death of brain cells due to an interrupted flow of blood and oxygen to the brain, is a debilitating disease and represents the second cause of death in developed countries. Depending on the region of the brain affected, a stroke may cause paralysis, speech impairment, loss of memory and reasoning ability, coma, or death.

"People are usually prescribed blood-thinning agents, such as anticoagulants, antiplatelets, and cholesterol-lowering agents, in order to prevent stroke," he said. "But those who do not respond to drug therapy could be good candidates for endovascular therapies, which represent a promising treatment option."