Loading...
In three studies published in 2013, endovascular treatment of stroke with early-generation devices yielded no improvement in outcomes. But in 2015, results of five randomized trials that involved nearly 1300 patients convincingly resurrected endovascular stroke therapy. Use of new-generation “stent retrievers” generally are credited for this reversal.
Although inclusion criteria for the five trials differed slightly, enrolled patients were functionally independent prior to the stroke, sites of arterial occlusion were the intracranial internal carotid or proximal middle cerebral artery, endovascular intervention was feasible within 6 hours from stroke onset, and most patients received tissue plasminogen activator. All patients were assigned r…