A systematic review on the assessment of cerebral autoregulation in patients with Large Vessel Occlusion

As the majority of large vessel occlusion (LVO) patients are not treated with revascularization therapies or efficiently revascularized, complementary management strategies are needed. In this article we explore the importance of cerebral autoregulation (CA) assessment in the prediction and/or modification of infarct growth and hemorrhagic transformation. In patients with LVO, these are important factors that affect prognosis. A systematic search of the PubMed, EMBASE databases and a targeted Google search was conducted, resulting in the inclusion of 34 relevant articles. There is an agreement that CA is impaired in patients with LVO; several factors have been identified such as time course, revascularization status, laterality, disease subtype and location, some of which may be potentially modifiable and affect outcomes. The personalized CA assessment of these patients suggests potential for better understanding of the inter-individual variability. Further research is needed for the development of more accurate, noninvasive techniques for continuous monitoring and personalized thresholds for CA.