[Complications of stent-assistant angioplasty of symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis].

Objective: To discuss the safety of intracranial stenting for refractory symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis.

Methods: Forty-eight patients with symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis were treated by transluminal stent-assistant angioplasty. Of them, 40 cases were selected because they had recurrent TIAs or mild stroke despite of antiplatelet or anticoagulation therapy; 8 cases with high-grade stenosis after acute cerebral artery theromblysis. Lesions involved MCA (17/48); Basilar artery (8/48); intracranial vertebral artery (18/18); and distal ICA (5/18).

Results: For 46 of 48 cases the flexible coronary stent were successfully deployed. The average stenosis reduced from 83% to 5%, short-term follow-up showed good clinical improvement. Complications include vessel rupture (1/18); acute thrombosis within stent (1/48); perforation of cortical artery (1/18) and perforate vessel occlusion (1/18).

Conclusion: Stent-assistant angioplasty are effective for treatment of symptomatic intracranial stenosis, the higher rate of complications may be because of the limited experiences of this technique. it need further practise and long term follow-up study.