Does Head Elevation Affect Clinical Status Before Stroke Thrombectomy?

Placing the head of the bed at 0° until thrombectomy markedly improved clinical stability compared with 30° without increasing pneumonia risk.

Some patients with acute stroke deteriorate when the head of the bed (HOB) is raised. Lowering the HOB increases residual blood flow and may improve or stabilize stroke symptoms as well, whereas raising the HOB may reduce aspiration pneumonia risk. To determine whether HOB positioning can be optimized to enhance clinical stability without increasing aspiration risk, researchers conducted the multicenter ZODIAC trial.

The investigators terminated the study early for efficacy at the second planned interim analysis after enrolling 92 patients with large-vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke presenting within 24 hours of last seen well time and randomized them to either 0° or 30° HOB positioning until thrombectomy. They excluded patients transferred fro…

Reviewing Author

Anthony S. Kim, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Anthony S. Kim, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Does Head Elevation Affect Clinical Status Before Stroke Thrombectomy?

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Reviewing Author