Considering the relevance of understanding the differences in patient outcomes between endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) centers for improving stroke care, researchers herein investigated between-center variation in functional outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke who were treated with EVT. Further, they assessed the extent to which modifiable center characteristics may explain this variation.

• Data of patients with stroke treated with EVT were retrieved using the nationwide registry in the Netherlands and in the Czech Republic.

• A total of 4,518 patients treated in 33 centers were included.

• Researchers expressed between-center variation as the relative difference in odds of a more favorable modified Rankin Scale score between a relatively better performing center (75th percentile) and a relatively worse performing center (25th percentile).

• Following adjustment for patient characteristics, there appeared 1.46 times higher odds of a more favorable outcome in a center at the 75th percentile of the outcome distribution compared with the odds in a center at the 25th percentile.

• Center-specific characteristics, such as time to reperfusion, could largely explain the considerable between-center variation in patient outcomes after EVT for acute ischemic stroke.

• A decrease in center-specific differences, and an overall improvement in outcome of patients with acute ischemic stroke may occur in correlation with an improvement in the parameters.