Clinically successful late recanalization of basilar artery occlusion in childhood: what are the odds? Case report and review of the literature.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Acute basilar artery occlusion is an infrequent but potentially fatal cause of stroke, both in adults and children. We present our experience with a 6-year-old child and we investigate the rationality for late treatment of acute basilar occlusion in children.

METHODS

We report the case of a 6-year-old boy with acute basilar artery occlusion presented with a full blown locked-in syndrome, admitted to the endovascular suite 44 h after the stroke onset, and we review all the reported cases of basilar artery occlusions presented with locked-in syndrome in children.

RESULTS

Six hours following admission the basilar artery was partially recanalized by intra-arterial thrombolysis combined with mechanical clot angioplasty. After 12 h, the patient was awake, oriented, his speech function was fully restored and he had only a mild right hemiparesis that recovered completely after a month.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is the first report of complete clinical recovery after delayed (50 h) endovascular recanalization of basilar artery in a child. Intra-arterial thrombolysis combined with cerebral angioplasty, can successfully restore the patency of the basilar artery and the neurologic deficit of children with acute basilar artery occlusion, even after a considerable delay.