Prolonged intubation duration post-thrombectomy in AIS under GA is associated with increased risk of poor outcome and pneumonia, suggesting intubation duration may serve as a prognostic marker in this setting.
Longer intubation duration was independently associated with higher risk of poor functional outcome (mRS 3-6) at 90 days.
Longer intubation duration was independently associated with higher risk of pneumonia during hospitalization.
The study enrolled 133 AIS patients undergoing endovascular thrombectomy under general anesthesia for final analysis.
Intubation duration was not significantly associated with 90-day mortality or intracranial hemorrhagic transformation in multivariable analysis.
The authors concluded that intubation duration may serve as a prognostic marker in AIS patients undergoing thrombectomy under general anesthesia.
This research studied 133 stroke patients who received a clot-removal procedure (thrombectomy) while under general anesthesia, and examined how long they remained on a breathing tube (intubated) after the procedure. The researchers found that for every additional 6 hours a patient remained intubated, their odds of having a poor functional outcome at 90 days increased by about 19%, and their odds of developing pneumonia increased by about 28%. Over half the patients (55.6%) developed pneumonia during hospitalization, and about half (51.9%) had poor functional outcomes at 90 days. The study found no statistically significant association between intubation duration and death within 90 days or bleeding in the brain, though these events did occur in a meaningful proportion of patients. The findings suggest that how long a stroke patient remains on a breathing tube after a thrombectomy procedure may be an important indicator — and possibly contributor — to how well they recover, with longer intubation linked to worse outcomes. This research suggests that keeping stroke patients on a breathing tube longer after their procedure may be associated with worse recovery and higher rates of lung infection, though the study design cannot prove that the prolonged intubation itself caused these worse outcomes. The authors emphasize that future prospective studies are needed to determine whether actively working to remove the breathing tube earlier would actually improve patient outcomes, rather than the prolonged intubation simply reflecting that sicker patients take longer to be ready for extubation.
Fan J, Liu G, Du Y, Hao Z, Yang J, Zhan S, et al.. (2026). Intubation duration after general anesthesia for thrombectomy in acute ischemic stroke: a cohort study.. Frontiers in neurology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2026.1937683