Treatment of basilar artery stenosis with an Apollo balloon-expandable stent: a single-centre experience with 61...

Stent placement for basilar artery (BA) stenosis remains a technical and clinical challenge. This retrospective study introduces the experience with the Apollo balloon-expandable stent (BES) for patients with symptomatic BA stenosis in a single centre in China. Sixty one patients who had undergone intervention for severe symptomatic BA stenosis between May 2012 and September 2018 were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent angioplasty and stenting with an Apollo BES and were followed-up continuously. The technical success rate was 100%. During the procedure, there was no vessel rupture or dissection. Two patients died due to perforator occlusion. One patient developed vasospasm with no symptoms. The rate of complications during the procedure was 4.91% (3/61). BA stent-related stroke or death rates were 4.9% at 30 days (3/61), 6.6% at 3 months (4/61), and 6.6% (4/61) at 6 months. One patient had stent occlusion at 6 months with no symptoms. Restenosis was found in five patients with degrees of restenosis greater than ≥ 50% without any symptoms. In this study, the Apollo BES appeared to be feasible for BA stenosis. Our experience may be valuable for reducing the number of complications. However, further study is needed.