Anesthesia Technique and Outcomes of Mechanical Thrombectomy in Patients With Acute Stroke

In this month’s Stroke journal, a multicenter cohort of acute ischemic stroke patients was collected using the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative Systems. During the study period of 2009 – 2013, 1174 patients were found to have undergone mechanical thrombectomy with a mean age of 67.3 years. 52.4% of the patients were female. In the cohort, 441 (37.6%) underwent generally anesthesia and 733 (62.4%) underwent conscious sedation. General anesthesia was associated with a 6.4% increased case fatality rate, corresponding to 15 patients needed to treat with conscious sedation to prevent one death. Similarly, an associated with length of stay increase of 8.4 days for generally anesthesia in comparison to conscious sedation was identified. In post hoc analysis, risk of pneumonia and hemorrhage transformation were not associated with differences in anesthesia technique.

https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.015343