Trends of Intravenous Thrombolysis and Thrombectomy for Low NIHSS Score (<6) Strokes in the United States: A National Inpatient Sample Study

Key Words: acute ischemic stroke intravenous thrombolysis national inpatient sample thrombectomy Stroke management has evolved significantly with the use of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and endovascular thrombectomy (EVT).However, low-severity strokes, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score <6, were mostly absent in the main trials that established the efficacy of EVT and IVT.As the indications for thrombectomy expand for larger and older strokes, there is still ambiguity surrounding its use in these low-severity cases.This study aims to analyze the trends in IVT and EVT usage as well as functional outcome, inpatient death, and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) among low-severity strokes in the United States following the landmark 2015 EVT trials.