Clinical Prognosis After Stroke in Nonagenarian Patients Treated With Thrombolysis or Mechanical Thrombectomy

Stroke is a significant cause of death and disability in France and internationally. The incidence of stroke increases with age, equal for both sexes. Of all strokes, 50% of cases occur in patients over 75 years of age. This advanced age leads to a high risk of mortality, long hospitalization, causing neurological sequelae in most cases.

Neurological handicap in the elderly is due to a high rate of comorbidity, reduced neuronal plasticity, nutritional status, and the short time to convert the penumbra area to ischemia.

Currently the standard treatment for the acute phase of HF is thrombolysis or thrombectomy.

The principle of thrombolysis is based on the use of a thrombolytic drug (Actylise®). It is a tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) that will cause lysis and dissolution of clots blocking the artery. Thrombolysis is recommended until 4:30 a.m. after the onset of symptoms in the absence of contraindication.

Mechanical thrombectomy consists of removing the blood clot by introducing a probe into the artery having a proximal carotid or sylvic occlusion in its M1 portion or in the vertebro-basilar territory of an indeterminate schedule of less than 24 hours or determined from 6 hours to 24 hours having a radio-clinical mismatch, according to the DAWN study. The results of this study were analyzed according to age, NIHSS score and lesion volume on perfusion scanner or MRI (RAPID software). The interim analysis at 31 months on 206 randomized patients (107 thrombectomies versus 99 medical treatments alone) showed a clear superiority of the thrombectomy, leading to the premature end of the study, over the handicap at 3 months with more than 35 % of independent patients.

In most of the randomized studies, patients over 90 years of age have been excluded or are under-represented. This lack of data therefore does not make it possible to determine the effectiveness of thrombolysis or thrombectomy treatments in these patients.

A recent meta-analysis has shown that the functional recovery in these patients treated by thrombectomy is superior to those of the same age without thrombectomies. According to American studies, the advanced age of a patient is not a contraindication to this treatment.

Patients affected by a cerebral infarction represent 40 to 50% of hospitalizations in the neurology department of the Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint-Joseph. In the intensive care of the neuro-vascular unit, the patient is received as quickly as possible to decide whether he can benefit from an extreme emergency treatment (intravenous thrombolysis or thrombectomy).

The present study should show that the clinical course after treatment in patients over 90 years of age is substantially comparable to younger patients, and that age is not a contraindication to treatment in the acute phase of stroke in the elderly.