[The dawn era in the management of acute ischemic stroke and its health policy implications. Should interventional cardiologists be involved?]

Similarly to what happened for myocardial infarction treatment during the two previous decades, ischemic stroke therapy has radically changed in recent years after the encouraging clinical results on the use of mechanical revascularization systems. The ever-increasing use of thrombectomy, which is now the first-choice approach for achieving rapid reperfusion of the ischemic brain, inaugurates a new era in the treatment of ischemic stroke, with important social and healthcare implications and the need for effective integrated stroke networks on a regional basis.Given the high annual rates of stroke and that approximately 35% of strokes are caused by the thrombotic occlusion of a large cerebral vessel, with a treatment window reaching up to 24 h after onset in selected cases, the resources of interventional neuroradiology are not enough to meet treatment needs in terms of performing centers and number of operators. The possibility of using centers already active for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction has therefore been taken into consideration. This article presents objective data to support the validity of this strategy and discusses how to create treatment networks using the interventional skills of cardiologists with the implementation of multidisciplinary functional structures.