Mechanical Thrombectomy in Acute Ischemic Stroke—Patients with Wake-Up Stroke and the Elderly May Benefit as Well

BackgroundWe have assessed to what extent age, sex, preintervention infarct size, time to groin puncture, and stroke severity are associated with outcome of mechanical thrombectomy in patients treated for acute ischemic stroke.MethodsAll 192 patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischemic stroke from September 2005 to December 2011 were included in this observational study. Main outcomes were independence, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 0-2, an improvement in stroke severity score post-thrombectomy, and the occurrence of symptomatic hemorrhage. Exposure variables were sex, age, intravenous thrombolysis, prethrombectomy stroke severity grading, pretreatment infarct size, time from onset of symptoms to groin puncture, thrombectomy device used, and the angiographic result from the thrombectomy.ResultsFor patients above 50 years with no neurological symptoms before stroke onset, the proportion gaining independence was unrelated to age group, ranging from 49% to 54%. For patients younger than 50 years of age, the proportion was significantly higher (81%). Patients with wake-up stroke did not differ from other patients with regard to outcome.ConclusionsOur results emphasize that when patients are selected on the basis of angiographic and perfusion imaging, both older patients and patients with wake-up stroke may experience a favorable outcome after mechanical thrombectomy.