Large core stroke thrombectomy: paradigm shift or futile exercise?

Predicting treatment effect is a popular topic among recent Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery stroke thrombectomy publications.1–3 The primary outcome measure is often functional independence, that is, a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 0–2, which may lead practitioners to ruminate on the probability of this outcome during stroke triage, instead of treating patients with thrombectomy. The authors of this comment believe that the most current data no longer support that approach. Patients’ families do not wish to hear our estimates of the probability of independent function after treatment. They generally prefer us to attend to providing their loved ones with even a slim chance at neurological improvement. In fact, the recent Stroke treatment Assessments prior to Thrombectomy In Neurointervention (SATIN) study demonstrated that neurointerventionalists were only accurate in predicting outcomes 44% of the time, including being overly pessimistic at times when outcomes were...
Source: Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery - Category: Neurosurgery Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research