Utilization of Extracorporeal Pump during Local Intra-arterial Fibrinolysis in the Treatment of Acute Cerebral Arterial Occlusion. A Case Report.

Local intra-arterial fibrinolysis may improve the outcome of patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease. A favorable prognosis is thought to be related to early re-establishment of blood flow into the affected brain. To minimize the time to revascularization during local intraarterial fibrinolysis, we employed an extracorporeal pump to deliver oxygenated blood into the affected brain through a microcatheter. The patient, a 57-year-old man, showed disturbance of consciousness with left hemiparesis and was admitted to our hospital one hour after onset of symptoms. Cerebral angiography demonstrated an acute occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery, and the patient underwent local intra-arterial fibrinolysis with an extracorporeal pump. Oxygenated blood was successfully delivered through a microcatheter into the affected brain before recanalization. Subsequently, recanalization was obtained by intra-arterial fibrinolysis with a tissue plasminogen activator. The outcome of this patient was excellent. Thus, local intra- arterial thrombolysis with extracorporeal pump may be an effective method by which to increase the residual blood flow and widen the therapeutic window for fibrinolysis.