Abstract
Background: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic is associated with an increased incidence of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) secondary to large vessel occlusion (LVO). The treatment of these patients poses unique and significant challenges to health care providers requiring changes in existing protocols.
Case presentation: A 54-year-old COVID-19 positive patient developed sudden onset left hemiparesis secondary to an acute right middle cerebral artery occlusion (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score = 11). Mechanical thrombectomy (MT) was performed under a new protocol specifically designed to maximize protective measures for the team involved in the care of the patient. Mechanical Thrombectomy was performed successfully under general anesthesia resulting in TICI 3 recanalization. With regards to time metrics, time from door to reperfusion was 60 mins. The 24-h NIHSS score decreased to 2. Patient was discharged after 19 days after improvement of her pulmonary status with modified Rankin Scale = 1.
Conclusion: Patients infected by COVID-19 can develop LVO that is multifactorial in etiology. Mechanical thrombectomy in a COVID-19 confirmed patient presenting with AIS due to LVO is feasible with current mechanical thrombectomy devices. A change in stroke workflow and protocols is now necessary in order to deliver the appropriate life-saving therapy for COVID-19 positive patients while protecting medical providers.
Keywords: Acute ischemic stroke; COVID-19; Coronavirus; Large vessel occlusion; Mechanical thrombectomy; Personal protective equipment; SARS-CoV-2; Stroke workflow.
Publication Date
9-24-2020
Content Type
Article
PubMed ID:
Citation
BMC Neurology (2020) 20(1):358
Comments
© The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.