In-hospital mortality in patients with ischemic stroke and a large cerebral artery occlusion, who underwent mechanical thrombectomy

Occlusion of a large cerebral artery in ischemic stroke (IS) is associated with a high mortality rate. Despite the results of studies that have demonstrated the beneficial effect of endovascular therapy on functional outcome in IS, little research has been conducted on its impact on hospital mortality in IS, its timing and structure.

Objective: to investigate hospital mortality in patients with IS and large cerebral artery occlusion, who underwent mechanical thrombectomy (MTE).

Material and methods. The retrospective study included data from 233 patients with IS and confirmed occlusion of a large cerebral artery (internal carotid artery, M1 and M2 segments of the middle cerebral artery, basilar artery) treated at the regional vascular center V.V. Veresaev Hospital, Moscow, 2018 and 2022. A comparison of hospital mortality in the group of patients who underwent MTE and the group of patients who received basic therapy was performed.

Results. MTE was performed in 107 patients (46%); 126 patients (54%) received only basic therapy. The mortality rate of all patients included in the study was 44.2%. Among all deaths, the proportion of patients with MTE was only 7.2%, while the proportion of patients on basic therapy was 36.9% (p<0.001). Mortality in the MTE group was four times lower than in the basic therapy group – 15.8% compared to 68.2% (p<0.001). We observed that certain manifestations were significantly more frequent in the basic therapy group: cerebral edema (42% vs. 18.6%), hemorrhagic transformation (19.9% vs. 12.9%), venous thromboembolism (6.3% vs. 3.7%) and infectious complications (42.8% vs. 14.3%). The mortality of patients in the basic therapy group was higher on the first day, on days 2–3 and also on days 4–7, while no differences in mortality were observed after the first week of the disease.

Conclusion. Admission of a patient with IS within the “therapeutic window” creates the conditions for a significant reduction in hospital mortality and the incidence of stroke complications.

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