Do you want to perform endovascular therapy? Perspectives from neurology trainees across Europe

Background and purpose: Endovascular therapy (EVT) has become standard care for acute ischaemic stroke caused by large-vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation. However, access to this treatment in Europe remains poor. The lack of operators is a contributing factor and there is on-going discussion as to whether other specialists, including neurologists, could contribute to the EVT workforce. The question remains whether the next generation of neurologists want to become ‘interventional neurologists’. The aim of this study was to address this question. Methods: We conducted a short survey within the National Representatives Network (a division of the Resident and Research Fellow Section, European Academy of Neurology) in order to determine the interest of future neurologists in performing EVT. Results: A total of 1218 responses from 27 European countries were received, with some variation in the number of respondents and results among individual countries. In total, 568 neurology trainees (47%) stated that they would want to be an ‘interventional neurologist’. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that neurologists could make a significant contribution to the workforce performing EVT and have important implications for the development and uptake of training programmes in Europe.