EXPRESS: Stent Retriever Alone vs. Aspiration and Stent-Retriever Combination in Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke: A Matched Analysis.

Background Three randomized clinical trials have reported similar safety and efficacy for contact aspiration (CA) and Stent-retriever (SR) thrombectomy. AimWe aimed to determine whether the Combined Technique (SR+CA) was superior to SR alone as first-line thrombectomy strategy in a patient cohort where balloon-guide catheter was universally used. MethodsA prospectively maintained mechanical thrombectomy database from January 2018-December 2019 was reviewed. Patients were included if they had anterior circulation proximal occlusion ischemic stroke (intracranial ICA or MCA-M1/M2 segments) and underwent SR alone thrombectomy or SR+CA as first-line therapy. The primary outcome was the first-pass effect (FPE) (mTICI2c-3). Secondary outcomes included modified FPE (mTICI2b-3), successful reperfusion (mTICI2b-3) prior to and after any rescue strategy, and 90-day functional independence (mRS â¤2). Safety outcomes included rate of parenchymal hematoma (PH) type-2 and 90-day mortality. Sensitivity analyses were performed after dividing the overall cohort according to first-line modality into two matched groups. ResultsA total of 420 patients were included in the analysis (mean age 64.4 years; median baseline NIHSS 16[11-21]). As compared to first-line SR alone, first-line SR+CA resulted in similar rates of FPE (53% vs. 51%,aOR 1.122, 95%CI[0.745-1.691],p=0.58), mFPE (63% vs. 60.4%,aOR1.250, 95%CI[0.782-2.00],p=0.35), final successful reperfusion (97.6% vs. 98%,p=0.75) and higher chances of successful reperfusion prior to any rescue strategy (81.8% vs. 72.5%,aOR 2.033, 95%CI[1.209-3.419],p=0.007). Functional outcome and safety measures were comparable between both groups. Likewise, the matched analysis (148 patient-pairs) demonstrated comparable results for all clinical and angiographic outcomes except for significantly higher rates of successful reperfusion prior to any rescue strategies with the first-line SR+CA treatment (81.8% vs. 73.6%,aOR 1.881, 95%CI[1.039-3.405],p=0.037).ConclusionsOur findings reinforce the findings of ASTER-2 trial in that the first-line thrombectomy with a Combined Technique did not result in increased rates of first-pass reperfusion or better clinical outcomes. However, addition of contact aspiration after initial SR failure might be beneficial in achieving earlier reperfusion.