Treatment of stroke with mechanical thrombectomy reduced post-stroke disability in nearly half of all patients in a new real-world study.
Patients suffering from an ischemic stroke are typically treated with medication to dissolve the clot.
However, in more severe cases a catheter with a special device on the end is threaded through the blood cell to remove the clot.
A total of 1,000 adult ischemic stroke patients were enrolled on the Embotrap eXtraction & Clot EvaLuation & Lesion Evaluation for NeuroThrombectomy, or EXCELLENT trial.
Patients were enrolled across 36 international sites, with an average participant age of 70 and 52 per cent were female.
Patients were treated with the EmboTrap mechanical thrombectomy device.
The study was designed to collect real-world treatment and did not exclude patients based on pre-stroke independence level, severity of stroke, location of the occlusion, or time between onset of stroke and treatment, the researchers said.
The researchers analysed the characteristics of the remove clots and how that impacted stroke recovery.
The study found that only one attempt to remove the clot was needed in most off the patients.
It is more often the case that multiple attempts are needed to do so.
In nearly half of patients, clot removal resulted in slight or minimal disability, as measured by a standard scale measuring level of disability 90 days after stroke.
“This study shows how much stroke thrombectomy has advanced,” said lead study author Raul G. Nogueira, M.D., director of the UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) Stroke Institute and a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
“We saw a wide range of cases, including patients who, not too long ago, would not be considered good candidates for thrombectomy based on older age, pre-existing disability or large size of the stroke on presentation.
“Our findings in this study expand thrombectomy to be considered for more stroke patients.”
