Case volumes of intra-arterial and intravenous treatment of ischemic stroke in the USA

Background and purpose: Ischemic stroke is a major cause of disability and death in the USA. Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) remains underutil-ized. With the development of newer intra-arterial reperfusion therapies, there is increased opportunity to address the more devastating large-vessel occlusions. We seek to identify the numbers of patients with stroke treated with intravenous and intra-arterial therapies, as well as to estimate the potential number of intra-arterial cases in the foreseeable future. Methods: We performed a literature search to deter-mine case volumes of intravenous t-PA use. We extrapolated the current case volume of intra-arterial stroke therapies from the numbers of cases in which th