The Severance Hospital has published a new study result, which showed the golden time for performing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) in acute ischemic stroke patients is 10 hours.

Research teams from 16 hospitals across the nation, including one led by Professor Kim Byung-moon from Severance, found patients who had good cerebral blood vessel circulation could benefit from EVT for up to 10 hours after the onset of stroke symptom.

International guidelines recommend performing thrombectomy during the first six hours after symptom onset. International clinical studies recognize EVT as the most effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke. It refers to a treatment method where a small catheter is placed in the femoral artery to access the clogged cerebral blood vessel and remove blot clots.

The study findings, which aimed to find the optimal time for EVT and the differential relationship between functional outcome and onset-to-reperfusion time (ORT), were published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

“Applying this standard is expected to increase the number of patients eligible for EVT more than two-fold,” Professor Kim said. “This study shows that patients who arrive at the hospital after a short time of symptom onset can undergo EVT and greatly improve their chances of recovery.”

The study also showed that patients who had good cerebral blood vessel circulation on their angiograms had a favorable prognosis while those with poor circulation had a low probability of seeing benefits even when getting treatment within three hours of symptom onset. About 85 percent of the patients in this study had good cerebral blood vessel circulation, the hospital said.

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