• Jessalyn K Holodinsky, Amy Y X Yu, Zarina A Assis, Abdulaziz S Al Sultan, Bijoy K Menon, Andrew M Demchuk, Mayank Goyal, and Michael D Hill.
• Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, Health Sciences Centre, University of Calgary, HBA 2935D, 3300 Hospital Dr NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 4N1, Canada. jkholodi@ucalgary.ca.
• Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2016 May 1; 16 (5): 42.

AbstractMore than 800,000 people in North America suffer a stroke each year, with ischemic stroke making up the majority of these cases. The outcomes of ischemic stroke range from complete functional and cognitive recovery to severe disability and death; outcome is strongly associated with timely reperfusion treatment. Historically, ischemic stroke has been treated with intravenous thrombolytic agents with moderate success. However, five recently published positive trials have established the efficacy of endovascular treatment in acute ischemic stroke. In this review, we will discuss the history of stroke treatments moving from various intravenous thrombolytic drugs to intra-arterial thrombolysis, early mechanical thrombectomy devices, and finally modern endovascular devices. Early endovascular therapy failures, recent successes, and implications for current ischemic stroke management and future research directions are discussed.

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