Background Time to reperfusion is an essential factor in determination of outcomes in acute ischemic stroke (AIS).

Objective To establish the effect of the procedural time on the clinical outcomes of patients with AIS.

Methods Data from all consecutive patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy between September 2010 and July 2012 were analysed retrospectively. The variable of interest was procedural time (defined as time from groin puncture to final recanalization time). Outcome measures included the rates of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH, defined as any parenchymal hematoma—eg, PH-1/PH-2), final infarct volume, 90-day mortality, and independent functional outcomes (modified Rankin Scale 0–2) at 90 days.

Results The cohort included 242 patients with a mean age of 65.5±14.2 and median baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 20. 51% of the patients were female. The mean procedure time was significantly shorter in patients with a good outcome (86.7 vs 73.1 min, respectively, p=0.0228). Patients with SICH had significantly higher mean procedure time than patients without SICH (79.67 vs 104.5 min, respectively; p=0.0319), which remained significant when controlling for the previous factors (OR=0.974, 95% CI 0.957 to 0.991). No correlation was found between the volume of infarction and the procedure time (r=0.10996, p=0.0984). No association was seen between procedure time and 90-day mortality (77.8 vs 88.2 min in survivals vs deaths, respectively; p=0.0958).

Conclusions Our data support an association between the risk of SICH and a longer procedure time, but no association between procedural times and the final infarction volume or long-term functional outcomes was found.