Successful clinical treatment of child stroke using mechanical embolectomy

Background: Stroke in childhood is less common than stroke in adults, but recent study estimate incidences up to 13/100,000. Mortality is decreasing but morbidity remains very high, with variable effects for two thirds of patients. Recent guidelines for optimal treatment in childhood stroke recommend advise against the use of thrombolysis, except for specific research protocols. There is no recommendation about intra-arterial thrombolysis or mechanical embolectomy. Various investigators have published cases of mechanical embolectomy in adult stroke, and a few cases of children are also reported.

Patient: We report a case of mechanical embolectomy 6 hours after a basilar artery occlusion in a healthy 7-year-old child.

Result: He presented a successful medical outcome and had made a complete recovery.

Conclusion: This patient and the 10 published pediatric cases suggest mechanical embolectomy can be successfully used to treat basilar artery occlusion in children with coordination of neurology and interventional radiology services.