The acute cerebrovascular event: surgical and other interventional therapies

Over the next decade, more early and aggressive treatments will become available for acute stroke. As EPs have been forced to push their skills and knowledge significantly further with the advent of time-sensitive interventions for myocardial ischemia, a similar sophistication will undoubtedly emerge in the management of acute stroke. Certain components of the neurological examination will likely assume a new significance and, as with the renewed focus on the nature of ST segment change on the ECG in ACS, there will be new attention to early imaging findings in stroke. Although it is unclear whether the balance of future advances in treatment will come from the world of neurosurgery, neurology, or interventional radiology, the EP is relatively assured to play a central role in their implementation.