Background and Purpose Symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis is a high-risk factor of ipsilateral ischemic stroke. Angioplasty with stent has been introduced to treat patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) a...Background and Purpose Symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis is a high-risk factor of ipsilateral ischemic stroke. Angioplasty with stent has been introduced to treat patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke attributed to intracranial stenosis since 1996. However, procedure-related neurological complications, either ischemic or hemorrhagic, could result in stroke and death, and benefits of stenting might be offset by higher disable stroke and death. So, the neurovascular angioplasty team should make great efforts to control procedural complications below an acceptable level, such as 10%, because it is impossible to avoid complication absolutely. The team should also be able to recognize, analyze and manage various procedure-related complications, to reduce the risk of disable stroke and death. The purposes of this article were to report our experiences of 20 complications, which occurred during the period of periprocedure.Methods Between September 5, 2001 and August 12, 2004, a total of 155 patients with 170 symptomatic intracranial stenoses of ≥ 50% received intracranial stenting. The management strategies for complication were as follow: ① intra-thrombus urokinase thrombolysis through micro-catheter for acute or subacute occlusion. ② another stenting for dissection. ③ antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapy for penetrator events. ④ continuing nimodipine intravenously for vasospasm. ⑤ to control blood pressure below 110 / 70 mm Hg, to neutralize heparin with protamine sulfate and to discontinue antithrombotic agents, etc, for intracranial hemorrhage. Disable stroke was defined as one that led to a modified Rankin scale (mRS) score of ≥2, 30 days after stroke. Results Procedure -related neurological complications occurred in 20 patients (12.9%, 20/ 155) and 20 lesions (11.7%, 20/ 170), including 6 intracranial hemorrhage (symptomatic, n=4; asymptomatic, n=2), 13 ischemic cerebral events (stroke, n=12; transient ischemic attacks, n=1) and 1 asymptomatic dissection. The probable causes, managements and outcomes of 20 complications are shown in table. Finally, by the means of aggressive endovascular and medical therapies, disable stroke and death within 30 days was 3.2% (5/155) and 1.3% (2/155), respectively. Conclusions Higher risk of procedure-related neurological complications may occur in stenting of intracranial stenosis. To reduce the possibility of disable stroke and death within 30 days, it is mandatory to develop strict procedural and periprocedural management strategies.展开更多
文摘Background and Purpose Symptomatic intracranial artery stenosis is a high-risk factor of ipsilateral ischemic stroke. Angioplasty with stent has been introduced to treat patients with transient ischemic attack (TIA) and minor stroke attributed to intracranial stenosis since 1996. However, procedure-related neurological complications, either ischemic or hemorrhagic, could result in stroke and death, and benefits of stenting might be offset by higher disable stroke and death. So, the neurovascular angioplasty team should make great efforts to control procedural complications below an acceptable level, such as 10%, because it is impossible to avoid complication absolutely. The team should also be able to recognize, analyze and manage various procedure-related complications, to reduce the risk of disable stroke and death. The purposes of this article were to report our experiences of 20 complications, which occurred during the period of periprocedure.Methods Between September 5, 2001 and August 12, 2004, a total of 155 patients with 170 symptomatic intracranial stenoses of ≥ 50% received intracranial stenting. The management strategies for complication were as follow: ① intra-thrombus urokinase thrombolysis through micro-catheter for acute or subacute occlusion. ② another stenting for dissection. ③ antiplatelet and anticoagulation therapy for penetrator events. ④ continuing nimodipine intravenously for vasospasm. ⑤ to control blood pressure below 110 / 70 mm Hg, to neutralize heparin with protamine sulfate and to discontinue antithrombotic agents, etc, for intracranial hemorrhage. Disable stroke was defined as one that led to a modified Rankin scale (mRS) score of ≥2, 30 days after stroke. Results Procedure -related neurological complications occurred in 20 patients (12.9%, 20/ 155) and 20 lesions (11.7%, 20/ 170), including 6 intracranial hemorrhage (symptomatic, n=4; asymptomatic, n=2), 13 ischemic cerebral events (stroke, n=12; transient ischemic attacks, n=1) and 1 asymptomatic dissection. The probable causes, managements and outcomes of 20 complications are shown in table. Finally, by the means of aggressive endovascular and medical therapies, disable stroke and death within 30 days was 3.2% (5/155) and 1.3% (2/155), respectively. Conclusions Higher risk of procedure-related neurological complications may occur in stenting of intracranial stenosis. To reduce the possibility of disable stroke and death within 30 days, it is mandatory to develop strict procedural and periprocedural management strategies.
