Endovascular treatment of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis with low profile visualized intraluminal support stent.

OBJECTIVE: Severe intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis has become one of the main causes resulting transient ischemic attack and stroke. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of low profile visualized intraluminal support (LVIS) stent in treating symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis.

METHODS: Data of 31 patients with at least 70% stenosis treated with LVIS stent in our center were retrospectively collected between July 2017 and November 2020. Further evaluation of lesion characteristics, technical success rate, preoperative complication, clinical and angiographic follow-up outcome, delayed in-stent stenosis were conducted.

RESULTS: Stent delivery and deployment were successfully achieved in all 31 patients (100%). 22 cases (71%) were located in anterior circulation and 9 cases (29%) were located in posterior circulation. The mean degree of stenosis lesion before stent deployment was 85.6 ± 9.4%, while after stenting was 11.2 ± 11.8%. One patient suffered from ischemic complication in stenting procedure, and timely delivery of rt-PA successfully recanalized the artery. Clinical follow-up was available in all 31patients (100%) with mean follow-up time 15.0 ± 12.1(3-45) months. No patients experienced the recurrence of stroke or TIA or death after discharge. Angiographic follow-up was available in 21patients (67.7%) with mean follow-up time 11.43 ± 6.8 (6-36) months. 19 patients (90.5%) were stable while 2 patients (9.5%) developed ISR in their last angiographic follow-up. The 2 patients received balloon angioplasty and reached satisfactory results after retreatment.

CONCLUSION: This preliminary study suggests that LVIS stent deployment was a feasible approach in treating intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis with satisfactory procedure success rate, low complication rate and favorable long-term outcome.