Several medical societies endorsed revised guidelines for image-guided interventional treatment of acute ischemic stroke.
Endorsed by the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and 11 other medical societies, the updated guidelines were published in the April edition of SIR's peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (April 2018, Vol. 29:4, pp. 441-453).
The revision updates guidelines from 2013 and establishes 15 metrics on patient care and outcomes based on findings from recent scientific studies about interventions such as thrombectomy and revascularization. The 2018 guidelines cover factors in selecting patients for interventional treatments and ensuring optimal outcomes, such preprocedural imaging, clot location, and calculating the time since the patient was "last known well."
The benchmarks are intended for use in quality improvement programs to assess and improve processes and outcomes, and they may also help facilities meet the criteria for accreditation as a comprehensive stroke center.
The other societies endorsing the guidelines are the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR), Canadian Association for Interventional Radiology (formerly the Canadian Interventional Radiology Association), Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE), Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT), European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR), European Stroke Organization (ESO), Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS), and World Stroke Organization (WSO).
