Seven years' follow-up of comparative study between stenting and medication for treatment of symptomatic vertebrobasilar artery stenosis.

Objective Endovascular stent-assistant angioplasty (ESAA) is a valid treatment for symptomatic vertebrobasilar artery stenosis (SVAS), but the long-term effect and the improvement of condition compared with medication treatment are unknown. This study investigated the long-term efficacy of ESAA in patients with moderate and severe SVAS, and compared the efficacy with medication treatment. Materials and methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical data of 43 patients with moderate and severe SVAS hospitalized in our department. According to different treatment methods they were divided into 29 cases in an ESAA group and 14 cases in a medication treatment group. During the follow-up period, the degree of vascular stenosis, vascular blood flow velocity, restenosis rate, recovery of neurological function and the incidence of cerebral ischemic events in the two groups were analyzed. Results The average clinical follow-up period was 89.4 ± 10.2 months. Before treatment, the stenosis rate and average blood flow velocity of the two groups were not statistically significant ( p > 0.05). During the follow-up period, both were significantly lower than the medication treatment group ( p < 0.01). In the ESAA group, three cases of stent stenosis, and three cases in the medication treatment group were completely occluded. The total ischemic events in ESAA group were three cases, compared with nine cases in the medication treatment group; the difference was statistically significant ( p < 0.05). Conclusion ESAA has a long-term effect in the treatment of symptomatic moderate and severe vertebrobasilar artery stenosis. It is superior to medication therapy in preventing posterior circulation ischemia (PCI), but a larger sample size is still needed to confirm the study.