Endovascular acute stroke treatment performed by vascular interventional radiologists: is it safe and efficacious?

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of neurointerventional procedures in acute stroke patients performed by a team of vascular interventional radiologists in close cooperation with diagnostic neuroradiologists and stroke neurologists and to compare the results with those of previous reports from centres with specialised interventional neuroradiologists.

A total of 39 patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large-vessel occlusion not responding to or not eligible for intravenous thrombolysis were treated with either intra-arterial thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy (Penumbra System or solitaire FR thrombectomy system, respectively) and included in our prospective study. Outcomes were measured using the modified Rankin scale after 90 days, and recanalization was assessed by thrombolysis using the myocardial infarction score.

Mean patient age was 68.3 ± 14.2 years; the average National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score at hospital admission was 17.2 (SD = 6.2 [n = 38]). Successful recanalization was achieved in 74.4 % of patients. Median time from clinical onset to recanalization was 5 h 11 min. Procedure-related complications occurred in 5 % of patients, and 7.5 % had a symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Of the patients, 22.5 % died within the first 90 postprocedural days, 5 % of these from cerebral causes. Patients who were successfully recanalized had a clinical better outcome at follow-up than those in whom treatment failed. Of the patients, 35.9 % had an mRS score ≤2 after 90 days.

Our results are in line with those in the published literature and show that a treatment strategy with general interventional radiologists performing neurointerventional procedures in acute stroke patients with large vessel occlusions can be achieved to the benefit of patients.