Endovascular treatment of stroke

Abstract

In 2013 results of three trials comparing the efficacy of intra-arterial approach (IAA) versus intravenous fibrinolysis (IVF) for the treatment of the acute ischemic stroke were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. IVF was at that time the treatment of reference for acute ischemic stroke, even if several retrospective clinical series found that anatomical and clinical outcomes were better when such treatment was associated with an endovascular approach. These trials and their negative results have not influenced the neurovascular community, above all, because of several study biases.