DISTAL results published!

While endovascular therapy is standard treatment for acute ischemic stroke patients with a large vessel occlusion since the publication of our MR CLEAN trial in 2015, the benefit of this treatment  in medium or distal vessel occlusion remains unsure. The DISTAL trial, published in NEJM 5 February 2025, could not demonstrate clinical benefit of endovascular treatment for stroke caused by occlusion of medium or distal vessels. The DISTAL trial in total included 543 patients. Eight Dutch CONTRAST centers participated in this international trial, led by Swiss researchers. The results are important and raise additional questions. CONTRAST stays involved and will participate in further analyses of the trial results.

We congratulate Julie Staals and Adriaan van Es, Work Package leaders of CONTRAST2 WP3a, and drivers of the DISTAL trial within the Netherlands, with the published results!

Publications can be found via the links below:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2408954
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2411668