Children experiencing severe neurological deficit due to acute ischemic stroke may benefit from endovascular intervention. The authors describe the use of mechanical thrombectomy in the treatment of embolic occlusion secondary to an atrial myxoma in a pediatric patient. This case involved an 11-year-old boy with a history notable for Raynaud syndrome and a distal extremity rash who presented to the emergency department with dense hemiparesis secondary to thromboembolic occlusion of the M1 segment of the middle cerebral artery. Following mechanical thrombectomy, the patient's pediatric National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score improved from a 16 to a 7. In the setting of acute pediatric stroke due to atrial myxoma emboli, mechanical thrombectomy may be a first-line therapy.
Keywords: AIS = acute ischemic stroke; AP = anteroposterior; IV = intravenous; MCA = middle cerebral artery; NIHSS = National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; PCoA = posterior communicating artery; atrial myxoma; cerebral emboli; mechanical thrombectomy; pediatric stroke; r-tPA = recombinant tissue plasminogen activator; vascular disorders.