To evaluate the safety and efficacy of Enterprise stent in the treatment of severe symptomatic basilar artery atherosclerosis stenosis.

All patients who underwent Enterprise stent for the treatment of symptomatic basilar artery atherosclerotic stenosis in our center from Nov. 2011 to Nov. 2014 were enrolled in the study. Preoperative and postoperative dual antiplatelet drugs and intensive lipid-lowering therapy were given to all the patients. Multi-modality imaging guiding for stent angioplasty was performed in all the patients, including head MRI or CT, CT or MRI perfusion, high resolution MRI for plaque analysis and angiography. Angiography after 6 months was recommended. The main outcome parameters were any stroke or death within 30 days, stroke recurrence in the basilar artery blood supply area during the follow-up period and in-stent restenosis.

A total of 35 cases were enrolled in the study with operation technical success rate of 100%. The average preoperative and postoperative stenosis rate was (83.0±10.1)% and (28.1±8.9)%. The main perioperative complication and mortality rate was 0. The average follow-up period was (10.6±7.9) months. During follow-up period, only 2 cases (5.7%) of TIA related to the stented artery were observed. In patients with follow-up period more than 6 months, 17 cases (56.7%) underwent cerebral angiography. Restenosis rate was 17.6%. One patient with in-stent restenosis suffered from transient cerebral ischemia and received another Enterprise stenting successfully.

Long term follow-up results show that Enterprise stent for the treatment of symptomatic basilar artery severe stenosis is safe and recurrence of stroke can be prevented effectively.

Basilar artery; Enterprise stent; Symptomatic intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis