Stent angioplasty for acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion after failed thrombectomy: a single institution series of 55 patients

Abstract Objective Analysis of safety and effectiveness of stent angioplasty for failure of thrombectomy in patients with acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion. Methods Retrospective continuous analysis of the clinical data of 458 patients with acute stroke undergoing endovascular artery thrombectomy in Changhai Hospital of Second Military Medical University from May 2013 to February 2018. Including patients with acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion treating with stent implantation, and evaluated the safety and effectiveness of stent angioplasty. Results Successful stent release in 55 patients. There were 36 cases (65.5%) locating in the anterior circulation and 19 cases (34.5%) in the posterior circulation. Twenty patients underwent intravenous thrombolysis before surgery, and the time of DNT (admission to intravenous thrombolysis) was (39.9±13.2) minutes.54 patients (98.2%) achieved mTICI 2b-3 recanalization. The NHISS score 2.0 (0.0,6.0) 7 days after surgery was significantly improved compared with the preoperative NHISS score 12.5（6.0,20.0）(Z=-4.073, P Conclusion For the failure of thrombectomy in patients with acute intracranial atherosclerotic occlusion, stent angioplasty is safe and effective. However, short-term stent reocclusion after surgery cannot be ignored. Due to the small sample size, larger multicenter clinical studies are needed to confirm this result.