Cerebral hemorrhage management in a patient requiring anticoagulant therapy is a therapeutic challenge also due to the absence of guidelines that convincingly define the best therapeutic strategy. Although the occurrence of cerebral hemorrhage in a patient with anticoagulant therapy seems to make the bleeding etiology obvious, sometimes, it is better to reflect on other possible causes and set up an adequate diagnostic workup. Herein, we describe a case of a 73-year-old male patient with atrial fibrillation, mechanical heart valve, and pacemaker that experienced an ischemic minor stroke during steady anticoagulation therapy with recurrent intracerebral haemorrhages (ICHs).
The authors present a case of a patient with a hypoplastic right vertebral artery (VA) ending in the posterior inferior cerebellar artery who sustained an acute onset basilar artery occlusion. A balloon-guided catheter was used to proximally occlude the dominant left VA, and aspiration was applied until reversal of flow was achieved in the basilar artery. Thus, basilar artery reperfusion was achieved without the need for stent-retrieval thrombectomy. We believe this represents the first described case of successful thrombectomy in the vertebrobasilar system using only proximal artery occlusion and aspiration. This novel technique may decrease the time to recanalization and improve outcomes for patients with acute basilar artery occlusion in the setting of a hypoplastic contralateral VA.
Introduction: Transradial approach (TRA) is a new technique proposed for performing cerebral angiography and neuro-interventional procedures. In this article, we sought to provide a step-by-step guide for carrying out a diagnostic cerebral angiography using this approach and summarize our center's experience.
Material and methods: Records of patients since January 2020 were investigated, and data on demographic indices, reports of the procedures, outcomes, and complications were extracted. Then, these data were used to develop a step-by-step instruction for TRA cerebral angiography.
Results: Two hundred eighty-nine patients matched our eligibility criteria with a mean age of 50 years and a female-to-male ratio of 1.18. Overall, TRA was carried out successfully for 97.2% (281 patients). In case TRA failed, transfemoral approach was considered for the procedure. Three minor complications (two vasospasm and one small hematoma) and two major complications (one pseudoaneurysm of the radial artery and one radial artery avulsion) were observed.
Conclusion: This article covers challenges a neurointerventionalist may face during a diagnostic cerebral angiography using TRA. Furthermore, our findings indicated that cerebral angiography with TRA might be performed safely and with a great success rate.