Stroke thrombectomy (+- thrombolysis), and not thrombolysis alone, should be the gold standard for stroke treatment
2022
Abstract
The highlight of the World Stroke Congress in Istanbul, 2014, was the presentation of the Dutch randomised trial - MR CLEAN - the first study demonstrating the superiority of catheter-based thrombectomy (CBT) over the best medical therapy, including intravenous thrombolysis1. Just a few months later, a series of randomised trials, performed in various countries, confirmed these initial results.
All of these trials demonstrated improved functional outcomes, but the differences in overall mortality were not significant.