Favorable Outcomes with Intravenous Thrombolysis Before Endovascular Thrombectomy

For large-vessel occlusion stroke, intravenous thrombolysis often is unable to restore blood flow on its own, whereas stroke thrombectomy can routinely achieve high recanalization rates. So is standard pretreatment with intravenous thrombolysis necessary, helpful, or even harmful? Investigators from the Safe Implementation of Treatment in Stroke–International Stroke Thrombectomy Register evaluated the association between pretreatment with intravenous thrombolysis and both functional independence and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage in this large real-world registry of patients with large-vessel occlusion. Of 6350 patients with large-vessel occlusion stroke treated at a selected group of 42 centers across Europe, 3944 received intravenous…