Patient-Relevant Deficits Dictate Endovascular Thrombectomy Decision-Making in Patients with Low NIHSS Scores with Medium-Vessel Occlusion Stroke

Geographic differences in the decision to proceed with immediate EVT, stratified by patients with mild-yet-disabling deficits with respect to their professions versus patients with mild deficits without a described profession. In North America, physicians would have treated patients with low NIHSS scores and personally disabling deficits in 44.5% (169/380) of cases, in contrast to 33% (94/285) of cases for which information regarding a profession was not provided. In Europe and the rest of the world (comprising Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, and South and Latin America), the practitioners were in favor of immediate EVT in 64.8% (464/716) and 54.3% (200/368) in patients with a personally relevant deficit, respectively, compared with 46.9% (252/537) and 37.7% (104/276), respectively, of scenarios in which a personally disabling deficit was not mentioned.