email article
Establishing an endovascular therapy (EVT) program at a cardiology cath lab could be done with a minimal learning curve if operators had prior experience with carotid stenting, one tertiary university hospital reported.
The program, started in 2012 with the addition of an experienced interventional radiologist as lead operator, had stroke patients achieve good clinical outcomes at 90 days in 47.9% of cases.
Importantly, the distribution in modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores stayed stable every year through 2019, according to Jakub Sulenko, MD, PhD, of Charles University and University Hospital Kralovske Vinohrady in Prague, Czech Republic, and colleagues in the PRAGUE-16 group.
"When a catheter-based thrombectomy program was initiated in an experienced cardiac cath lab in close cooperation between cardiologists, neurologists, and radiologists, outcomes were comparable to those of neuroradiology centers," Sulenko and colleagues concluded in