To compare post-thrombectomy independence of patients <80 years to those over 80 years old as well as those with preadmission disability to those without to determine if age or preadmission modified Rankin Scale (mRS) are independent factors in functionality outcome.

Few studies have evaluated the functional outcomes of the older population post-thrombectomy, have narrow inclusion criteria, or neglect preadmission disability, which may not well represent this population whom may be expected to have increased preadmission disability related to aging.

We performed a retrospective chart review from January 2013 to March 2018 of all patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) receiving mechanical thrombectomy for confirmed proximal large artery occlusion on angiography and 3-month follow-up mRS with or without intravenous thrombolysis.  We used Chi-squared, Fisher’s exact, and linear mixed proportional tests to compare outcomes (favorable mRS 0-2, unfavorable mRS 3-6 at 3 months) between the two age groups and of those with no or mild symptoms (preadmission mRS 0-1) compared to those with disability (preadmission mRS 2 and above).

Of 162 patients receiving thrombectomy, 132 met inclusion criteria above, 37 (28%) of whom were 80 years and above. As expected, the younger group had significantly higher proportion of no or mild symptoms preadmission at 82.1% compared to 54.1% in the older group (p=0.002).  3-month post-thrombectomy favorable outcomes were 44.2% and 16.2%, respectively (p=0.0018). When indirectly comparing age contribution by proportional change in each group (37.9% in both), no significance was found (p=0.592).

In our study, in patients with AIS receiving thrombectomy there was an expected significant difference in independence at 3 months of those with preadmission disability vs. those without, with more preadmission disability seen in the aged group. However, as relative proportion of independence was similar, age does not seem to play a significant role. Larger studies are required for validation.