EndovaSCular TreAtment to imProve outcomEs for Medium Vessel Occlusions (ESCAPE-MeVO trial)

Summary

Patients who present to the Foothills hospital with acute stroke symptoms receive a CT scan of their brain. If there is a blockage in one of the arteries, supplying blood to the brain and there is no hemorrhage, and if they are eligible, they receive standard stroke treatment, which is administration of a clot dissolving agent and repeat imaging of the brain to check if the clot is dissolved. Depending on the location of the clot, sometimes thrombectomy is also performed. During thrombectomy, the doctor makes a small cut and places a thin hollow tube (catheter) into a blood vessel in the patient's groin. The tube is advanced into the blood vessels in the neck and head. Dye is be injected into the tube several times and x-rays are taken to help view the blockage. The doctor try to remove the clot by putting a Health Canada approved device (eg. a stent retriever or other device) into the artery with the clot and removing the clot into the tube and pulling it out of the patient's body. Thrombectomy is a standard of care to the patients who have occlusion in the large vessel. However, we do not have data to help decide the doctors, if the same technique will work for certain medium vessel blockage or not. Currently there are smaller devices available, which are useful in accessing the medium size vessels and current study will gather information as to whether the thrombectomy treatment results in better outcome for the patients or not.