Endovascular therapy of acute ischaemic stroke by interventional cardiologists: single-centre experience from Turkey.

Aims: We report our single-centre experience with the Solitaire AB self-expanding retrievable stent system in patients with acute ischaemic stroke.

Methods And Results: Demographic, clinical, and angiographic findings of thirty-eight consecutive patients with acute ischaemic stroke who underwent mechanical thrombectomy were evaluated retrospectively. The mean initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score was 17.8±4.6. Nearly half of the patients had a middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion (45%). Both internal carotid artery and MCA occlusions were detected in five patients. Successful revascularisation (Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction [TICI] 2b and 3) was achieved in 34 of 38 (89%) patients; a TICI 3 state was observed in 24 (63%) patients. Almost three quarters of the patients (74.3%) improved by >5 points on the NIHSS at discharge, and 57.9% showed a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of ≤2 at 90 days.

Conclusions: This single-centre experience with mechanical thrombectomy devices demonstrated that the procedure could be performed safely with high success rates by experienced interventional cardiologists in suitably equipped cathlabs.