Table 1.
Group comparison of patients treated for LVO of the posterior circulation with EST under conscious sedation (CS) or general anesthesia (GA).
| CS | GA | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| (n = 45) | (n = 60) | ||
| Patient characteristics | |||
| Age, median (IQR) | 75 (66–82) | 76 (64–81) | 0.933 |
| Sex—male, n (%) | 21 (46.7) | 41 (68.3) | 0.025 |
| Diabetes mellitus, n (%) | 8 (17.8) | 9 (15.0) | 0.789 |
| Blood glucose level on admission, median (IQR) [mg/dl] | 123 (107–150) | 119 (104–144) | 0.924 |
| Hypertension | 36 (80.0) | 45 (75.0) | 0.896 |
| Atrial fibrillation | 16 (35.6) | 12 (20.0) | 0.093 |
| Hypercholesterinemia | 14 (31.1) | 17 (28.3) | 0.935 |
| Pre-stroke mRS, median (IQR) | 0 (0–1) | 0 (0–2) | 0.649 |
| NIHSS on admission, median (IQR) | 7 (4–12) | 8 (5–14) | 0.209 |
| Time windows | |||
| Unknown symptom onset (“wake up stroke”) n (%) | 15 (33.3) | 24 (40.0) | 0.484 |
| Transfer for treatment n (%) | 21 (46.7) | 31 (51.7) | 0.612 |
| Intra-venous thrombolysis n (%) | 16 (35.6) | 23 (38.3) | 0.856 |
| Time from onset to imaging, median (IQR) [min] | 142 (62–557) | 228 (79–622) | 0.084 |
| Time from imaging to groin puncture, median (IQR) [min] | 45 (31–62) | 64 (45 – 100) | 0.004 |
| Time from groin puncture to final EST-result, median (IQR) [min] | 55 (32–88) | 68 (47–123) | 0.177 |
| Imaging and Interventional characteristics of EST | |||
| Basilar artery occlusion, n (%) | 20 (44.4) | 49 (81.7) | <0.001 |
| Tip of the basilar artery/posterior artery, n (%) | 23 (51.1) | 17 (28.3) | 0.017 |
| Dominant V4 segment of vertebral artery, n (%) | 2 (4.4) | 4 (6.7) | 0.631 |
| Intra-cranial stenting of target vessel | 3 (6.7) | 13 (21.7) | 0.034 |
| ADAPT as first thrombectomy attempt, n (%) | 9 (20.0) | 10 (16.7) | 0.931 |
| Thrombectomy attempts in total, median (IQR) | 1 (1–2) | 1 (1–2) | 0.753 |
| Successful revascularization (mTICI 2–3), n (%) | 38 (84.4) | 51 (85) | 0.762 |
| Failure of revascularization (mTICI 0–1), n (%) | 2 (4.4) | 5 (8.3) | 0.501 |
| Procedural complications | |||
| Intraprocedural complications | 3 (6.7) | 5 (8.3) | 0.743 |
| Intracranial vasospasms, n (%) | 1 | 1 | |
| Vessel perforation, n (%) | 0 | 0 | |
| Vessel dissection, n (%) | 0 | 2 | |
| Thrombus embolization, n (%) | 2 | 2 | |
| Follow-up imaging | |||
| pc-ASPECTS baseline, median (IQR) | 10 (8–10) | 9 (7–10) | 0.023 |
| pc-ASPECTS follow-up, median (IQR) |
8 (7–10) | 7 (5–9) | 0.012 |
| Intracranial hemorrhage, n (%) | 4 (8.9) | 7 (11.7) | 0.705 |
| Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage |
2 | 3 | 0.586 |
| Clinical outcome (matched-pair analysis) | |||
| mRS discharge, median (IQR) | 3 (2–4) | 4 (3–5) | 0.005 |
| NIHSS discharge, median (IQR) | 2.5 (1–11) | 6.5 (2–23) | 0.034 |
| mRS 90 days after stroke onset, median (IQR) | 2.5 (1–4) | 3 (2–6) | 0.036 |
| Good outcome (mRS 0–2 or 3 if pre-stroke mRS 3) 90 days after stroke onset, n (%) | 19 (42.2) | 15 (32.6) | 0.311 |
| Mortality 90 days after stroke onset, n (%) | 4 (8.9) | 14 (31.1) | 0.002 |
Bold values are statistically significant p-values (<0.05).