PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Burkhardt, Jan-Karl
AU  - Shapiro, Maksim
AU  - Tanweer, Omar
AU  - Litao, Miguel
AU  - Chancellor, Breehan
AU  - Raz, Eytan
AU  - Riina, Howard A
AU  - Nelson, Peter Kim
TI  - Balloon-assisted tracking technique to overcome intracranial stenosis during thrombectomy for stroke
AID  - 10.1136/neurintsurg-2018-014275.rep
DP  - 2019 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery
PG  - e1--e1
VI  - 11
IP  - 3
4099  - http://jnis.bmj.com/content/11/3/e1.short
4100  - http://jnis.bmj.com/content/11/3/e1.full
SO  - J NeuroIntervent Surg2019 Mar 01; 11
AB  - Anatomical vessel obstacles such as an intracranial stenosis in stroke are challenging and may lead to delayed clot access for thrombectomy. We describe a simple and effective technique to overcome the step-off between the intermediate catheter and an intracranial vessel stenosis during thrombectomy. The patient presented with acute embolic left middle cerebral artery occlusion and a favorable penumbral pattern. Clot access was made challenging by focal stenosis in the ipsilateral cavernous segment. The balloon-assisted tracking technique was effective in traversing the step-off to enable TICI 3 aspiration thrombectomy. This simple and effective technique should be kept in mind during stroke procedures where a proximal stenotic obstacle complicates access to the site of occlusion.