Door-to-Needle Time Under 60 Minutes and Picture-to-Puncture Under 90 Minutes: Initiatives and Outcomes in Reducing Time to Recanalization for Cerebral Major Artery Occlusion

The adoption of stent retrievers has significantly improved outcomes of intravenous treatment for acute stroke due to major artery occlusion, and reducing the time to recanalization may achieve further improvements. We reviewed reductions in “door-to-needle time” (DNT) and “picture-to-puncture time” (P2P), as the results of measures to consolidate stroke response capabilities in our hospital, and compared treatment outcomes in acute recanalization patients. We investigated DNT by the route of admission for 96 consecutive patients who received intravenous tissue plasminogen activator between July 2012 and June 2015. We then retrospectively studied 52 patients with acute stroke who underwent endovascular recanalization within 8 h after stroke onset, grouped according to recanalization before (Group I; n = 23) or after (Group II; n = 29) introduction of stent retrievers. Between 2012 and 2015, mean DNT decreased. Significant differences between Groups I and II were only seen in times required, with significantly shorter DNT, picture-to-puncture time, admission to puncture time, and puncture to guiding catheter placement time in Group II. A considerable difference in DNT was seen according to the route of patient admission, and consolidation of hospital stroke response capability successfully reduced the time from admission to recanalization.