As this issue goes to press, we are nearing many 1-year anniversaries of the last normal events in our lives before the pandemic. The last time we boarded a plane for work or pleasure. The last hug with a parent or grandchild. The last time we cheered at an event surrounded by friends, family, and neighbors. The last time we donned and doffed without concern for anyone in the room but the patient.

Without question, the pandemic-affected period—however long it lasts—will stand unique in the history of neurointervention, as it will throughout all of health care and society. But looking through a longer lens, we can also see the continued innovation and refinement of the care we can offer patients with strokes, aneurysms, and other neurovascular conditions. New chapters in neurointerventional research continue to be written, including the effects of COVID-19 on patients, practitioners, and practice patterns, and development continues in our understanding of best practices, many of which have changed considerably in recent years.

This special edition of Endovascular Today focuses on the present-day challenges and advancements taking place in the field of neurointervention.

R. Gilberto Gonzalez, MD, starts off our coverage by considering the role of advanced imaging in favorable outcomes after thrombectomy. With its high precision, options like diffusion-weighted imaging can have a profound effect on estimating core size in patients treated 6 hours post ictus and identifying slow progressors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted other areas where innovation and fresh ideas are needed. In an interview with Drs. Raul G. Nogueira and Thanh N. Nguyen on their recently published study, we learn about the global impact of the pandemic on stroke care and mechanical thrombectomy volumes, highlighting the need for creative solutions for stroke education, access to stroke care, and stroke protocol workflows.

Bree Chancellor, MD, and Peter K. Nelson, MD, then share their thoughts on the current state of cerebral flow diverters and disruptors, covering topics such as advancements, data, patient selection, and treatment strategies based on location and type of aneurysms.

Joseph A. Carnevale, MD; Gary Kocharian, MD; Jacob Goldberg, MD; Alexander D. Ramos, MD; Justin Schwarz, MD; and Jared Knopman, MD, dive into the topic of nonacute subdural hematoma, asking what we’ve learned and what we still need to know about middle meningeal artery embolization, an alternative to the standard of care for this challenging pathology.

Next, Waleed Brinjikji, MD, explores venous sinus stenting for select patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension. He explores the question of whether this option is ready for prime time by reviewing patient selection, current data, and available tools and techniques, as well as the obstacles to making it standard of care.

Outside of the feature on neurointervention, representatives from the RAPID Pathways Collaborative Paclitaxel Project Working Group outline their recent paper that focused on the strengths and limitations of study designs and data quality and the lessons learned on guiding the design, execution, and analyses of future studies on paclitaxel in peripheral artery disease.

Our issue closes with an interview with Theresa Caridi, MD, in which she discusses her road to focusing on women’s health, raising patient awareness for uterine artery embolization, her new leadership role, and more.

We are beyond grateful for the contributions of every author who devoted time and efforts to this edition, knowing how varied and unpredictable their schedules are right now. We hope you enjoy the perspectives they share and find optimism and potential inherent in each.

Dorothea Altschul, MD, FAHA
Guest Chief Medical Editor