title: Primary stenting as emergency therapy in acute basilar artery occlusion.
abstract: In three patients with acute occlusion of the basilar artery intra-arterial fibrinolysis resulted in only partial recanalization and revealed severe stenosis as the underlying cause. Application of micro-stents without previous dilatation resulted in vessel re-opening. Two patients had an excellent clinical outcome. One patient died 10 days after the stroke due to brainstem infarction. Emergency primary stent application may improve the outcome in acute basilar artery occlusion, if intra-arterial thrombolysis fails to re-establish a sufficient flow.
authors.affiliation: Section of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Freiburg, Breisacher Strasse 64, 79106 Freiburg, German. spreer@nz11.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spreer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Els
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hetzel
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klisch
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Huppertz
authors.forename: Eckhardt
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Oehm
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schumacher
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004638:Emergency Treatment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015607:Stents; D015912:Thrombolytic Therapy; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014715:Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency / Q000628:therapy*