More than three passes of stent retriever is an independent predictor of parenchymal hematoma in acute ischemic stroke.

INTRODUCTION

Despite successful recanalization with mechanical thrombectomy (MT) for acute anterior ischemic stroke (AAIS), the number of passes may impact clinical outcome.We analyzed the impact of more than three MT passes (>3) in a trial that evaluated contact aspiration (CA) versus stent retriever (SR) as the first-line technique in AAIS.

METHODS

We included patients with mTICI 2b/3 recanalization after MT for isolated intracranial occlusions. The primary outcome was the percentage of patients with a 90-day modified Rankin Scale (mRS)≤2. Secondary outcomes included overall distribution of 90-day mRS, parenchymal hematoma on 24 hours' brain imaging (PH), and 90-day mortality.

RESULTS

Among the 281 patients included and even after adjustment on time to recanalization, significantly more patients with >3 passes had PH than patients with ≤3 passes in multivariate analysis (adjusted OR, 3.62; 95% CI, 1.55 to 8.44). When the analyses were stratified according to CA vs. SR, patients with >3 passes had a stronger risk of PH than patients with ≤3 passes, only in the SR first-line-treated group (adjusted OR, 9.24; 95% CI, 2.65 to 32.13) and not in the CA first-line-treated group (adjusted RR, 1.73; 95% CI, 0.57 to 5.19). A negative association of borderline significance (P=0.07) between >3 passes and favorable outcome was observed only in SR first-line-treated patients (adjusted OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.09 to 1.11).

CONCLUSIONS

After three passes of SR and unlike for three passes of CA, there is an increased risk of PH and a trend toward a worse clinical outcome.