title: Endovascular embolectomy of acute basilar artery occlusion.
abstract: Acute basilar artery occlusion has a mortality rate approaching 90%. The authors describe a case of acute basilar artery occlusion managed successfully with endovascular embolectomy. A 31-year-old man sought treatment for confusion, dysarthria, and right-sided weakness. He soon became unresponsive and was found to have a vertebral artery dissection and an associated basilar artery embolism. The dissection was managed with endovascular stenting, and the basilar artery embolus was removed with a clot retriever at 7 hours. The patient recovered without neurologic deficit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. wyu6228@itsa.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Foster-Barber
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Malek
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Higashida
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D017128:Embolectomy; D006801:Humans; D020766:Intracranial Embolism / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D011859:Radiography; D020217:Vertebral Artery Dissection / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D014715:Vertebrobasilar Insufficiency / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*