Peri-procedural complications and associated risk factors in wingspan stent-assistant angioplasty of intracranial artery stenosis

Objective: To retrospectively evaluate the cerebrovascular complications from stenting for symptomatic intracranial stenosis and to detect the factors associated with complications. Methods: Medical records of Wingspan stenting were reviewed for 306 cases with symptomatic intracranial stenosis from July 2007 to February 2012, including transient ischemic attack, ischemic stroke, death and intracranial hemorrhage as clinical in-hospital complications. The location of lesions included middle cerebral artery level M1 (114 lesions), intracranial portion of the internal carotid artery (50 lesions), vertebral artery 4 (75 lesions), venebro-basilar artery (14 lesions), basilar artery (76 lesions). Complications were evaluated and analyzed to find out whether they were associated with patient-or stenosis-related risk factors using χ² test. Results: The technical success rate was 99% (303/306). Cerebrovascular complications rate was 6.9% (21/303), with 1.6% (14/303) of disabling stroke events and 0.7% (2/303) of deaths. Hemorrhagic events were consisted of procedure-related events (3 cases), hyperperfusion (3 cases), ischemic events of perforator stroke (8 cases), transient ischemic attack (3 cases), embolization (2 cases), thrombosis in stent (2 cases). Hemorrhagic events were associated with significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates (χ² = 2.908, P < 0.05) and occurred more frequently after treatment of middle cerebral artery stenosis than other lesions (χ² = 1.168, P < 0.05). Perforating branches were detected to be affected mainly in the basilar artery than other locations (χ² = 4.263, P < 0.05). Conclusion: The complication rates in the study are preliminary consistent with the previously published data. Hemorrhagic events are prone to occur in the treatment of middle cerebral artery stenosis, while perforating branches are affected mainly in the basilar artery. (authors)