Recent guidelined for the early endovascular management of patients with acute ischemic stroke and practical aspects of their implementation

Abstract

Objective — to estimate safety and effectiveness of intra-arterial treatment for acute ischemic stroke in the interventional radiology department of multiprofile hospital. Materials and methods. Urgent endovascular treatment was applied at 15 patients with acute ischemic stroke in carotid circulation during 2015–2017. Mechanical intra-arterial therapy with thrombectomy by stent-retrievers and thromboaspiration was used at accordingly six and two recent cases (during 2017); in 7 cases intra-arterial thrombolysis was the treatment option (2015–2016). Results. The article consist brief review of literature about acute ischemic stroke treatment and discussion concerning results of treatment of selected patients. Mechanical thrombectomy or thromboaspiration were effective in 75.0 % of cases with good recanalization rate opposite to 42.9 % at 7 patients treated by either intra-arterial or bridging thrombolysis with rt-PA. Unexpected technical failures of mechanical thrombectomy regarding recent clinical guidelines for ischemic stroke management following are discussed on example of 2 clinical cases. Conclusions. Endovascular treatment of ischemic stroke has a high safety and well-known efficacy. It became evident at our patients that following current management guidelines for thrombectomy with stent-retrievers or thromboaspiration after thrombotic occlusions of extracranial and proximal segments of intracranial arteries allowed attaining in 2017 reperfusion rate 2b/3 Modified Treatment in Cerebral Ischaemia Scale in majority of cases. Intra-arterial thrombolysis contributed to the reperfusion rate 2b/3 on the Modified Treatment in Cerebral Ischaemia scale just in 42.9 % of cases, which indicates its lower effectiveness.