Intracranial stenting for large vessel intracranial atherosclerotic disease: Retrospective study

Background: Intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) is a common cause for stroke and can be defined as symptomatic (stroke) or asymptomatic. Current guidelines recommend against intracranial stenting (ICS) for patients with ICAD; treatment of patients who failed the best medical therapy is still debatable. Methods: We introduce a preliminary retrospective analysis of our tertiary stroke center during 2018–2022 of patients that were treated with ICS either in acute phase or elective (eICS). Study endpoints were stroke, functional outcome (modified Rankin Score [mRS] at 3 months), and serious adverse events. Results: Thirty-three stents were implanted, 21 in acute group and 12 in the eICS group. Most patients (75%) were treated with a new generation self-expandible stent. One patient had peri-procedural stroke and four patients had transient ischemic event or stroke during follow-up. There were eight cases of death (all acute group patients, seven of which occurred in the posterior circulation). Fifteen patients (62%) had favorable clinical outcomes (mRS 0-2 for pre-stroke), of which 10/10 (100%) in the eICS, the other two eICS patients had pre-morbid mRS 3 with no clinical change. Conclusions: The evolution of new devices for ICS and the accumulating interventional experience might open a new era. As no other effective alternative treatment options exist for preventing recurrent stroke, stenting is still common practice in many tertiary centers either urgently or as elective procedure for refractory cases.