Comparisons of Characteristics and Outcomes after Mechanical Thrombectomy for Vertebrobasilar Occlusion with Cardioembolism or Atherosclerotic Brain Infarction: Data from the Tokyo-Tama-Registry of Acute Endovascular Thrombectomy (TREAT)

Aspiration versus stent retriever for posterior circulation stroke: A meta‐analysis

“…The clinical outcome for patients with posterior circulation stroke are strongly associated with the underlying mechanisms of stroke 21 . In the present analysis, only five studies reported the proportion of causative mechanisms (Table 1).…”

“…The difference in the etiology of LVO might greatly affect the outcomes of thrombectomy in posterior circulation LVO 21 . It is well known that underlying intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is more common in posterior circulation LVO than anterior circulation LVO 38–40 .…”

“…Second, some critical confounders, such as baseline NIHSS score, devices used, vascular occlusion sites, causative mechanisms of stroke, pre‐stroke imaging selection, and selection criteria for thrombectomy were not balanced between the aspiration and stent retriever groups, which may cause a bias in our results regarding favorable outcomes, recanalization rate, duration of the procedure, and complications. Third, according to the previous study, the causative mechanism is a very important confounder in the treatment of posterior circulation stroke 21 . However, due to the lack of patient‐level data, further analysis could not be performed to identify the safety and efficacy of aspiration and stent retrievers based on different causative mechanisms, such as ICAD and non‐ICAD basilar artery occlusion.…”

“…Baseline data included first author, year of publication, sample size, study design (prospective or retrospective study), sex, NIHSS score on admission, time from onset to groin puncture, distribution of occlusion sites, aspiration, and stent retriever devices. Since stroke etiology, pre-imaging selection and selection criteria for thrombectomy may greatly affect the outcomes of thrombectomy, [19][20][21] the relevant data of these factors has also been collected. Any question was communicated and resolved by the corresponding author.…”

“…The difference in the etiology of LVO might greatly affect the outcomes of thrombectomy in posterior circulation LVO. 21 It is well known that underlying intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is more common in posterior circulation LVO than anterior circulation LVO. 38-4 0 In addition, ICAD has been identified as the cause of lesions in 25%-40% of patients with acute basilar artery occlusion in Chinese and Korean studies.…”