Angioplasty, Stenting and Other Potential Treatments of Atherosclerotic Stenosis of the Intracranial Arteries: Past, Present and Future

Although there is an intuitive appeal to treat symptomatic stenotic intracranial arteries with endovascular therapies such as angioplasty and stenting, current data from randomized trials show intensive medical therapy is far superior for preventing stroke. This is in large part due to the high risk of peri-procedural stroke from angioplasty and stenting. If angioplasty and stenting is to emerge as a proven treatment for intracranial stenosis, endovascular techniques will need to become much safer, identification of patients with intracranial stenosis who are at particularly high risk of stroke despite intensive medical therapy will need to be targeted, and well-designed randomized trials will be necessary to show endovascular therapy is superior to medical therapy in these high-risk patients.