General anesthesia versus conscious sedation in mechanical thrombectomy for patients with acute ischemic stroke: systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

After recently published randomized clinical trials, the choice of the best anesthetic procedure for mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) due to large vessel occlusion (LVO) is not definite.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the efficacy and safety of general anesthesia (GA) conscious sedation (CS) in patients with AIS who underwent MT, explicitly focusing on procedural and clinical outcomes and the incidence of adverse events.

METHODS

PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing GA CS in patients who underwent MT due to LVO-AIS. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated for binary outcomes, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Random effects models were used for all outcomes. Heterogeneity was assessed with I2 statistics.

RESULTS

Eight RCTs (1,300 patients) were included, of whom 650 (50%) underwent GA. Recanalization success was significantly higher in the GA group (OR 1.68; 95% CI 1.26-2.24;  < 0.04) than in CS. No significant difference between groups were found for good functional recovery (OR 1.13; IC 95% 0.76-1.67;  = 0.56), incidence of pneumonia (OR 1.23; IC 95% 0.56- 2,69;  = 0.61), three-month mortality (OR 0.99; IC 95% 0.73-1.34;  = 0.95), or cerebral hemorrhage (OR 0.97; IC 95% 0.68-1.38;  = 0.88).

CONCLUSION

Despite the increase in recanalization success rates in the GA group, GA and CS show similar rates of good functional recovery, three-month mortality, incidence of pneumonia, and cerebral hemorrhage in patients undergoing MT.