The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) and several other medical societies have teamed to release new guidelines for interventional treatment of acute ischemic stroke.
The guidelines, which have been published in the current issue of SIR's Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (February 2013, Vol. 24:2, pp. 151-163), reflect multispecialty and international consensus on the metrics and benchmarks for processes of care and technical and clinical outcomes for stroke patients, according to SIR. They capture consensus on clinical practice of intra-arterial stroke revascularization and recommend a national stroke outcomes registry.
The authors reviewed relevant literature from 1986 through February 2012 as the basis for creating performance metrics and thresholds, and society representatives then discussed each issue based on the literature review and personal experience, lead author Dr. David Sacks said in a statement. Sacks is an interventional radiologist at Reading Hospital and Medical Center in West Reading, PA.
Other participating societies included the American Society of Neuroradiology, the European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy, the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery, the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology, the Canadian Interventional Radiology Association, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe.
