Mechanical thrombectomy with the solitaire stent at Lyon, France.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The Solitaire stent has been suggested as a promising device to perform intracranial thrombectomy in large vessels. We report our experience.

METHODS

Consecutive patients in whom a thrombectomy with Solitaire stent had been performed for acute ischemic stroke in the Lyon Stroke Unit, France, from November 2009 to November 2010 were enrolled.

RESULTS

There were 12 patients with a mean age of 66 years and a mean baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score of 17.5. There were 10 cases of anterior cerebral artery and 2 cases of basilar artery occlusion. The mean time from onset of symptoms to recanalization was 306 min. Partial or total recanalization was obtained in 91.6% of patients. One case of periprocedural asymptomatic arterial dissection and 1 case of symptomatic cerebral hemorrhage occurred. At 90 days, 4 patients (33.3%) were dead and 5 patients (41.6%) had a modified Rankin Scale ≤2.

CONCLUSIONS

In this case series, thrombectomy using Solitaire stent in stroke related to large vessel occlusion appears to be feasible, safe and potentially effective. Randomized controlled trials are needed to demonstrate the superiority of thrombectomy alone or in combination with intravenous tPA over intravenous tPA alone in ischemic stroke patients with large intracranial arterial occlusion.