Reperfusion therapy after stroke increases seizures risk regardless of therapy used, finds study

USA: One in 15 (6%) of ischemic stroke patients treated with reperfusion therapy develop seizures, regardless of the type of therapy, according to a recent study in the journal Stroke.

The choice of reperfusion therapy may be influenced by the balance of harms and benefits. Post-stroke seizures increase the risk of poor outcomes and death. Alain Lekoubou, Penn State University, Hershey, PA, and colleagues performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the risk of incidence of seizures after acute stroke reperfusion therapy -- intravenous thrombolysis [IVT] with r-tPA [recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator], mechanical thrombectomy or both.

The researchers searched online databases for articles published between 1995 and October 28, 2019. The primary outcome was the overall and treatment specific pooled incidence of poststroke seizures (PSS) following acute reperfusion therapy. The pooled incidence of early poststroke seizures and late poststroke seizures was also computed separately for all studies. The researchers derived the PSS risk associated with IVT in the pooled cohort of patients who received only IVT.