Endovascular Therapy for Stroke — It's about Time

Although many stroke centers worldwide have performed endovascular stroke therapy since the results of the Prolyse in Acute Cerebral Thromboembolism (PROACT) II trial were published in 1999,1 lingering uncertainties about efficacy and the selection of patients created an uneasy equipoise. Especially nettlesome was the uncertain benefit of endovascular therapy as compared with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). The controversy over endovascular therapy was heightened in 2013 when the results of the Interventional Management of Stroke (IMS) III,2 Mechanical Retrieval and Recanalization of Stroke Clots Using Embolectomy (MR RESCUE),3 and Local versus Systemic Thrombolysis for Acute Ischemic Stroke (SYNTHESIS Expansion)4 clinical . . .