• Cleusa P Ferri, Anna Buehler, Uri Adrian Prync Flato, Paulo Puglia Junior, and Jefferson G Fernandes.
• Instituto de Educação e Ciências da Saúde, Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
• Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2016 Jan 1; 74 (1): 67-74.

UnlabelledFew patients benefit from the current standard treatment for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), encouraging the development of new treatments.ObjectiveTo systematically review the literature on the efficacy and/or safety of endovascular thrombectomy in AIS compared to standard treatment and to identify ongoing randomized controlled trials (RCTs).MethodSearches for RCTs were performed in Medline/Embase, and for ongoing trials: International Clinical Trial Registry Platform, Clinicaltrials.gov and ISRCTN registry (to June 15th, 2015).ResultsFrom the eight published RCTs, five showed the superiority of treatment that includes thrombectomy compared to standard care alone. From the 13 ongoing RCTs, 3 have been halted, one has not started, one has unknown status and eight will end between 2016 - 2020.ConclusionEvidence favours a combination of the standard therapy with endovascular thrombectomy. The selection criteria however limit the number of people who can benefit. Further studies are needed to prove its cost-effectiveness.

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