Outcomes of Mechanical Thrombectomy Do Not Differ With Witnessed Vs Unwitnessed Stroke Onset

In an article published today in the journal Stroke, univariable and multivariable analysis of data from the DAWN trial (NCT02142283) show that the outcomes of mechanical thrombectomy for treatment of ischemic stroke did not correlate to different modes of stroke onset.

The 3 modes of onset examined were unwitnessed onset (n = 25/206), wake-up onset (n = 114/206), or unwitnessed onset (n = 67/206). Median time last seen well to randomization was 14.1 ± 4.9 hours for those with unwitnessed onset, 13.4 ± 3.7 for those with wake-up onset, and 10.0 ± 3.7 for those with witnessed onset.  

Among those who had thrombectomy, mode of stroke onset did not correlate with the proportion of individuals who had a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of 0 to 2 (P = .79) or with the rate of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (P = .40). 

Additionally, the benefit of thrombectomy vs best medical therapy alone remained across unwitnessed (41.4% vs 13.2%), wake-up (49.3% vs 10.6%), or witnessed (63.6% vs 21.4%) stroke (P for interaction = .79).