Endovascular therapy for low NIHSS Ischemic stroke (Endowlow)

Summary

The “clot-busting drug” Tissue Plasminogen Activator (tPA) is approved by Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of ischemic stroke within 3 hours after the stroke symptoms started. In some cases, your doctor may give this drug up to 4.5 hours after the stroke has begun. Stroke patients who arrive at the hospital later than 4.5 hours or who do not get better with tPA may be considered for a procedure to remove the blood clot from the brain called a thrombectomy. The Health Canada and FDA have cleared devices used during the thrombectomy procedure for the treatment of stroke for up to 24 hours after the stroke onset in patients who have a National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) of 6 points or higher. This stroke scale is what is used to
determine how bad the stroke is. The higher the score, the worse the stroke symptoms. Currently we do not know if patients with lower stroke scale scores of 5 or less will benefit from the thrombectomy procedure.

Therefore, the main goal of this study is to compare patients with a low stroke scale score undergoing the thrombectomy procedure within 8 hours to patient receiving only medical care. The researchers will determine if patients who have had the thrombectomy have less disability and better recovery from the stroke than patients who have standard medical care alone.