PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Pervinder Bhogal AU - Victoria Hellstern AU - Muhammad AlMatter AU - Oliver Ganslandt AU - Hansjörg Bäzner AU - Marta Aguilar Pérez AU - Hans Henkes TI - Mechanical thrombectomy in children and adolescents: report of five cases and literature review AID - 10.1136/svn-2018-000181 DP - 2018 Dec 01 TA - Stroke and Vascular Neurology PG - 245--252 VI - 3 IP - 4 4099 - http://svn.bmj.com/content/3/4/245.short 4100 - http://svn.bmj.com/content/3/4/245.full AB - Background Paediatric arterial ischaemic stroke is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among children. Currently, there are no recommendations regarding mechanical thrombectomy in children despite overwhelming evidence of improved outcomes in adults. Therefore, the need for individual case reports and case series is important to highlight potential advantages and disadvantages in this approach.Case descriptions We retrospectively searched our prospectively maintained database of patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy for ischaemic stroke. We describe five children, aged between 7 and 17, who underwent mechanical thrombectomy for acute ischaemic stroke. We provide an account of their clinical presentations, operative treatment and postoperative outcome.Discussion Mechanical thrombectomy in children, especially older children, can be performed safely and with existing devices. Although a randomised controlled trial would provide compelling evidence of the potential advantages to this technique, the lack of this should not prevent the use of this procedure by trained neurointerventionists.