Coding cerebral bypasses: a proposed nomenclature to better describe bypass constructs and revascularization techniques.

OBJECTIVE: Bypass surgery has evolved into a complex surgical art with a variety of donor arteries, recipient arteries, interpositional grafts, anastomoses, and suturing techniques. Although innovation in contemporary bypasses has increased, the literal descriptions of these new bypasses have not kept pace. The existing nomenclature that joins donor and recipient arteries with a hyphen is simplistic, underinformative, and in need of improvement. This article proposes a nomenclature that systematically incorporates anatomical and technical details with alphanumeric abbreviations and is a clear, concise, and practical "code" for bypass surgery. METHODS: Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the proposed nomenclature, which consists of abbreviations for donor and recipient arteries, arterial segments, arteriotomies, and sides (left or right), with hyphens and parentheses to denote the arteriotomies joined in the anastomosis and brackets and other symbols for combination bypasses, are presented. The literature was searched for articles describing bypasses, and descriptive nomenclature was categorized as donor and recipient arteries (donor-recipient), donor-recipient with additional details, less detail than donor-recipient, and complete, ambiguous, or descriptive text. RESULTS: In 483 publications, most bypass descriptions were categorized as donor-recipient (335, 69%), with superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery bypass described most frequently (299, 62%). Ninety-seven articles (20%) used donor-recipient descriptions with additional details, 45 (9%) were categorized as ambiguous, and none contained a complete bypass description. The authors found the proposed nomenclature to be easily applicable to the more complex bypasses reported in the literature. CONCLUSIONS: The authors propose a comprehensive nomenclature based on segmental anatomy and additional anastomotic details that allows bypasses to be coded simply, succinctly, and accurately. This alphanumeric shorthand allows greater precision in describing bypasses and clarifying technical details, which may improve reporting in the literature and thus help to advance the field of bypass surgery.

Compliance With Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Individual Participant Data Statement for Meta-Analyses Published for Stroke Studies.

Background and Purpose: Individual-participant data meta-analyses (IPD-MA) are powerful evidence synthesis studies which are considered the gold-standard of MA. The quality of reporting in these studies is guided by the 2015 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data (PRISMA-IPD) guidelines. The growing number of IPD-MA published for stroke studies calls for an assessment of the compliance of these studies with the PRISMA-IPD statement. Methods: PubMed and EMBASE were searched for MA in stroke published between January 1, 2016, and March 30, 2020, in journals with impact factor >2. Literature reviews, scoping reviews, and aggregate MA were excluded. The final articles were scored using the 31-item PRISMA-IPD checklist. Results were depicted using descriptive statistics. Compliance with each item in PRISM-IPD guideline was recorded. The study was defined as compliant to IPD analyses if it satisfied all IPD specific items. Results: From an initial set of 321 articles, 31 met the final eligibility for data extraction. Only 4 (13%) described the use of PRISMA-IPD guidelines in their methodology, while 8/31 (26%) used the old PRISMA guidelines and 19/31 (61%) followed none. Regardless of mention of using IPD specific guidelines, 42% (n=13) of studies were compliant with all 4 IPD specific domains. The poorest areas of compliance were bias assessment within (32%) and across (39%) studies, reporting protocol and registration (42%), and reporting of IPD integrity (48%). The median journal impact factor was similar between the compliant (median, 8.1 [interquartile range, 5.4­39.9]) and noncompliant (median, 6 [interquartile range, 4.5­16.2]) groups (P=0.24). Similarly, the journal, country of correspondence, number of authors, number of studies included in MA, study sample size, and funding source were statistically similar between the groups. Conclusions: For the published IPD-MA stroke studies, the compliance with PRISMA-IPD statement and compliance with 4 IPD specific items was suboptimal. The journal, author, and study-related factors were not associated with compliance. Additional scrutiny measures to ensure adherence to mandated guidelines might increase the compliance. Several avenues to improve compliance and ensure optimal adherence are discussed.

Left distal radial access in patients with arteria lusoria: insights for cerebral angiography and interventions.

BACKGROUND: The transradial approach (TRA) is frequently used for neurointerventional procedures as it is safer, improves patient comfort, and decreases costs and procedural time in comparison with the transfemoral approach (TFA). Patients with arteria lusoria, or an aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA), provide a unique challenge for cerebral angiography and interventions when using the TRA. OBJECTIVE: To examine the hypothesis that the extreme angulation encountered while accessing the great vessels from the right TRA could be overcome by reversing the approach to the left distal TRA (dTRA). METHODS: A prospectively maintained database of transradial neurointerventional cases since 2018 was searched. Six cases from 850 were identified, in which the left dTRA was used. Three cases were for patients with an ARSA. For the three cases of interest, patient history, pathology, imaging, and access techniques were reviewed. RESULTS: Two diagnostic cerebral angiography cases and one intervention were successfully performed through a left dTRA. CONCLUSIONS: Proper positioning of the left wrist and familiarity with forming the Simmons catheter can overcome this anatomical challenge. This technique and results further demonstrate that the left distal radial artery is a feasible access site for catheterization of bilateral carotid, left vertebral, and right subclavian arteries for patients with an ARSA.