Study: Delaying thombectomy, even for minutes, can lead to lifelong consequences

Delaying endovascular thrombectomy treatment for patients with acute ischemic stroke can take time off of patient’s lives and cost hospitals extra, according to a new study reported by Medscape.

Results from the study were presented by Dr. Wolfgang Kunz of Munich, Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University during the 11th World Stroke Congress.

Every hour of delay within the first six resulted in, on average, a loss of approximately 0.6 quality-adjusted life years, or approximately 7.7 months of disability-free life, according to the report.

Beyond patient outcomes, every hour of delay also reduces the economic value of the care by $63,558, Medscape reports.

The results come from an analysis of the Hermes pooled patient-level data, which includes information from seven trials published between 2015 and 2016.

The trials examined patients who experienced acute ischemic stroke caused by the occlusion of the proximal anterior circulation and either received thrombectomy plus thrombolysis or thrombolysis alone, according to the report.

“One thing that is striking, is that delays of even a minute can have a notable impact if you project this over a lifetime. We know that the treatment effect decreases over time, and we know this from outcomes that are typically measured at 90 days. But if you project the effects over many years, a minute delay in treatment — for example, you try to call someone, and the person is not responding — that deducts patient lifetime by 4 days, on average. It’s almost a linear relationship, meaning that if you have a 10-minute delay, then it’s 40 days,” Dr. Kunz told Medscape.

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