Background and purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to assess vascular integrity after stent-retriever thrombectomy.
Methods: Dissection, contrast medium extravasation, and vasospasm were evaluated in 23 patients after thrombectomy with biplane or 3D-digital subtraction angiography and 3-Tesla vessel wall MRI.
Results: Vasospasm was detected angiographically in 10 patients, necessitating intra-arterial nimodipine in 2 of them. Contrast extravasation, intramural hemorrhage, or iatrogenic dissection were not detected on multimodal MRI in any patient even after Y-double stent-retriever technique.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that clinically relevant vessel wall injuries occur rarely after stent-retriever thrombectomy.
Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging; stroke; thrombectomy.
© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.