• Sonal Sharma, Surya Kumar Dube, Tariq Esmail, Amie L Hoefnagel, Kiran Jangra, Jorge Mejia-Mantilla, Ananya Abate Shiferaw, Veerle De Sloovere, David Wright, Abhijit Vijay Lele, and Samuel Neal Blacker.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA.
• J Neurosurg Anesthesiol. 2024 Jul 8.

ObjectiveThis study explored the current global landscape of periprocedural care of acute ischemic stroke patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy (EVT).MethodsAn anonymous, 54-question electronic survey was sent to 354 recipients in hospitals worldwide. The responses were stratified by World Bank country income level into high-income (HICs) and low/middle-income (LMICs) countries.ResultsA total of 354 survey invitations were issued. Two hundred twenty-three respondents started the survey, and 87 fully completed surveys were obtained from centers in which anesthesiologists were routinely involved in EVT care (38 in HICs; 49 in LMICs). Respondents from 35 (92.1%) HICs and 14 (28.6%) LMICs reported that their centers performed >50 EVTs annually. Respondents from both HICs and LMICs reported low rates of anesthesiologist involvement in pre-EVT care, though a communication system was in place in 100% of HIC centers and 85.7% of LMIC centers to inform anesthesiologists about potential EVTs. Respondents from 71.1% of HIC centers and 51% of LMIC centers reported following a published guideline during EVT management, though the use of cognitive aids was low in both (28.9% and 24.5% in HICs and LMICs, respectively). Variability in multiple areas of practice, including choice of anesthetic techniques, monitoring and management of physiological variables during EVT, and monitoring during intrahospital transport, were reported. Quality metrics were rarely tracked or reported to the anesthesiology teams.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated variability in anesthesiology involvement and in clinical care during and after EVT. Centers may consider routinely involving anesthesiologists in pre-EVT care, using evidence-based recommendations for EVT management, and tracking adherence to published guidelines and other quality metrics.Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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