Specific features of reperfusion therapy for vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke

Abstract

Ischemic stroke in the vertebrobasilar system (VBS) is characterized by the high rates of death and disability; reperfusion therapy in patients with a lesion focus in the VBS is safe and effective beyond the 4.5-hour therapeutic window. Actively developed current methods for the endovascular treatment of acute ischemic stroke enable one to increase recanalization rates and hence to improve the degree of functional recovery in this group of patients. Considering that there are no significant differences in the outcomes of systemic and selective thrombolytic therapy in patients with occlusion of the basilar arteries, the urgent problem is to increase the time from the onset of the disease to reperfusion therapy, therefore combined reperfusion therapy may be an optimal option. This approach would make it possible to initiate the therapy in a shorter period of time and to use the advantages of both reperfusion techniques. Intravenous thrombolysis as the rapidest and technically simplest method may be performed in the first step of therapy in the clinics unequipped with an X-ray surgical service, with the patient being further transported to a specialized endovascular center if the intravenous injection of a thrombolytic agent has no effect. Taking into account the fact that reperfusion therapy may be performed in patients with vertebrobasilar stroke in the wider therapeutic window, a similar organizational chart with multistep therapy for this disease might become the treatment of choice.