Review Article
Introduction
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an important
cause of stroke in young people, and has been traditionally
treated with systemic anticoagulation with heparin. Recently,
arterial strokes have been treated by vascular intervention,
which has shown remarkable clinical effcacy and safety in
randomized trials. Endovascular mechanical thrombectomy
(EMT) may become the standard of care for venous strokes
as well, because logically they lead to the immediate clot
removal and enhancement of venous outfow, leading to the
reduction in edema and venous hypertension, and features of
raised intracranial tension.
Currently, there are no randomized trials comparing
endovascular interventions with systemic anticoagulation.
The main presumed advantage of clot removal or lysis is that
it improves recanalization. However, it is well known that
clinical improvement and recanalization can be dissociated,
and patient can have complete clinical recovery in the absence
of any recanalization at all.
1
The effcacy of EMT and the
safety is still under investigation because most patients with
CSVT recover with systemic anticoagulation only. Also, the
risks of occurrence or aggravation of intracranial hemorrhage
due to the procedure or catheter-related complications are not
well characterized.
This review is an attempt to consolidate all the available
evidence regarding the use of EMT in the management of
CSVT.
Search Strategy
We searched PubMed using the keywords “cerebral venous
thrombosis,” “endovascular intervention,” “thombectomy,”
“mechanical thrombectomy,” and “intrasinus fbrinolysis,”
and the relevant cross references were studied. No rand-
omized trials were found. Only case reports, case series,
and metaanalyses of case series without control groups were
found. Some of the studies compared intrasinus fbrinolysis
with mechanical thrombectomy and intrasinus fbrinolysis.
Intrasinus Thrombolysis
Intrasinus thrombolysis (IST) may be administered through
transfemoral, transjugular, transcarotid, or transcranial routes.
There are no randomized trials comparing IST with
medical management or EMT. Various agents such as
streptokinase, urokinase, and tissue plasminogen activator
have been tried with good results. IST with urokinase was
reported for the frst time in 1988 in a comatose patient,
1
Department of Neurology, JIPMER, Puducherry, India.
Corresponding author:
Sunil K. Narayan, Comprehensive Stroke Care Centre, Department of
Neurology, JIPMER, Puducherry 605006, India.
Email: Sunil.narayan@jipmer.edu.in
Endovascular Interventional Management
of Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis
Sunil K. Narayan
1
and Arunmozhimaran Elavarasi
1
Abstract
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is relatively a rare cause of stroke and can have protean manifestations ranging
from headache, seizures, diplopia, focal deficits or coma. It is usually managed with anticoagulation. However, various studies
have shown a mortality of 13% to 30% and have elucidated certain risk factors such as poor sensorium at presentation and
rapid deterioration in spite of anticoagulation, for poor outcomes. In these situations, it has been postulated that endovas-
cular management using thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy can give better outcomes. This review tries to address
the role of endovascular interventions in CVST.
Keywords
Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, mechanical thrombectomy, intrasinus thrombolysis, intrasinus fbrinolysis, endovascular
mechanical thrombectomy
Journal of Stroke Medicine
1(1) 28-33, 2018
© 2018 Indian Stroke Association
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DOI: 10.1177/2516608518774211
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