Letter of apology.

To the Editor: A letter to The New England Journal of Medicine entitled “Mechanical Extraction of a Basilar-Artery Embolus With the Use of Flow Reversal and a Microbasket” (N Engl J Med. 2002;347:769 –770) described the first case in which we used a new technique combining a mechanical extraction device and flow reversal. The manuscript submitted to and published in Stroke entitled “Treatment of Basilar Artery Embolism With a Mechanical Extraction Device: Necessity of Flow Reversal” (Stroke. 2002;33:2232– 2235) was written 4 months later. It reviewed the cases of the first 5 patients to be treated by the Guidant neuronet with and without applying flow reversal. This article included parts of the single case description submitted to The New England Journal of Medicine. We failed to inform Stroke about the other submission. We now see that we should have discussed the matter with the editors of the journals. We therefore apologize for not having provided you with this information.