A new stroke treatment that removes blood clots from large blood vessels in the brain has proven more effective than clot-busting drugs in reducing disability and boosting recovery.

Research conducted in Catalonia, Spain, suggests the new procedure could be revolutionize the standard treatment for stroke patients, according to experts from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who helped conduct the study.

The new findings on the technique — known as thrombectomy — were reported online in the New England Journal of Medicine and announced today at a meeting of the European Stroke Organization in Glasgow, Scotland.

"These findings are a game-changer for how we should treat certain types of stroke," said Demetrius Lopes, M.D., surgical director of the comprehensive stroke center at Rush University Medical Center, one of 39 centers in the U.S. and Europe that participated in the trial. "These outcomes are the difference between patients being able to care for themselves after stroke and being dependent."

Nearly 800,000 people have a stroke each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stroke is the leading cause of severe long-term disability in the United States. About 87 percent of cases are ischemic strokes, which result from clots in vessels supplying blood to the brain.

The standard treatment is the use of clot-busting drugs — tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) — to dissolve the clot, but it is not always effective and the drug can cause additional problems.

But thrombectomy offers a minimally invasive alternative to remove the clot. During thrombectomy, a surgeon threads a catheter through an artery in the patient's groin, snaking it through the blood vessels and into the brain. The doctor then uses a device to grab and dislodge the clot and pull it all the way out through the incision — a procedure likened to an angler reeling in a fish.

The new study compared the experiences nearly 200 patients receiving tPA alone and those receiving a combination therapy of tPA and thrombectomy within six hours of the onset of stroke symptoms.

The results showed the patients who received the combo therapy had reduced disability and nearly double the functional independence, compared to those receiving the clot-busting drug only.

"For every 2.6 patients treated, one additional patient had an improved disability outcome; for every four patients treated, one additional patient was independent at 90 day follow-up," the New England Journal of Medicine article said.

"Ethically, we can't deny patients a treatment when we have such strong evidence it's better for them," Dr. Lopes said, noting thrombectomy now is a standard treatment at Rush and other facilities for patients with severe strokes.