Intravenous Milrinone Salvage Therapy in Acute Internal Carotid Artery Occlusion: Case Report

Acute internal carotid artery occlusion is a devastating form of ischemic accident with significant morbidity and possible mortality. The "threatened hemisphere" is allowed limited access to collateral circulation further worsening the ischemic burden and the overall prognosis.

We present the details of a case of a 38-year-old woman who suffered from an ischemic stroke. The clinical course of which showed a hemodynamic dependence to preserve her neurological function, prompting the use of the phosphodiesterase inhibitor milrinone to maintain her neurological function.

This case represents the first case in the literature in which a medical therapy is used to salvage brain tissue in the site of acute symptomatic large vessel occlusion. This has spared the patient from a potential significant morbidity and even mortality if a revascularization procedure had been attempted.

This innovative use of milrinone, if applied in more captured patients with internal carotid occlusion or those with reversible hemodynamic failure, would improve our understanding of the ischemic thresholds and cerebral vascular reserves and would improve the clinical outcome of this significant ischemic insult.