Floating Aortic Thrombus: A Rare Cause of Acute Ischemic Stroke Necessitating Modification of Access Route for Thrombectomy

We report 2 patients with acute occlusion of middle cerebral artery successfully treated by mechanical thrombectomy performed via transbrachial access. Both patients had floating aortic arch thrombi precluding safe transfemoral access due to risk of further iatrogenic embolization. Moreover both patients were diagnosed with hypercoagulopathy secondary to lung malignancy (paraneoplastic etiology, Trousseau's syndrome) as the cause of both aortic thrombi and acute ischemic stroke. Mechanical thrombectomy in the setting of a floating aortic thrombus has been mentioned only once as part of general management of floating aortic thrombi in the whole body. To the best of our knowledge, it has never been described previously in the literature in the context of cerebral mechanical thrombectomy technique. However, the diagnosis of this entity bears clinical importance for it can modify the treatment approach. A modified transbrachial approach allowed us to treat both patients without neurologic complications and resulted in modified Rankin scores of 1 on follow-up. We advise that the cross-sectional imaging of acute stroke patients should include an evaluation of the aortic arch and should be scrutinized in detail especially in patients with possible hypercoagulable state. Flat panel computed tomography technology allowed us to obtain such an imaging study in the angiography suite.