Endovascular Therapy for Acute Stroke with a Large Ischemic Region

BACKGROUND: Endovascular therapy for acute ischemic stroke is generally avoided when the infarction is large, but the effect of endovascular therapy with medical care as compared with medical care alone for large strokes has not been well studied. CONCLUSIONS: In a trial conducted in Japan, patients with large cerebral infarctions had better functional outcomes with endovascular therapy than with medical care alone but had more intracranial hemorrhages.

⚡ This is an original paraphrased summary — not copied from the abstract. Full paper available at the source link below.

• 1 METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, open-label, randomized clinical trial in Japan involving patients with occlusion of large cerebral vessels and sizable strokes on imaging, as indicated by an Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomographic Score (ASPECTS) value of 3 to 5 (on a scale from 0 to 10, with lower values indicating larger infarction).
• 2 Patients were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive endovascular therapy with medical care or medical care alone within 6 hours after they were last known to be well or within 24 hours if there was no early change on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images.
• 3 Alteplase (0.6 mg per kilogram of body weight) was used when appropriate in both groups.

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