Reperfusion therapy for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a technique for rapid and effective resolution of cerebral ischemia, and a number of reperfusion methods have been widely used in clinical practice, either alone or in combination. The results of a recent multicenter retrospective study of 13 clinical centers in the United States have been published, which better answers this question. The multicenter retrospective study included a total of 1122 cases of AIS at 13 clinical centers in 10 states in the United States, all of which were admitted to the hospital after 8 h of disease onset. The mean age of the patients was 67±16 years, and the mean NIHSS score at admission was 17. The sites of arterial occlusion were: M1 MCA occlusion in 561 cases (50%), terminal internal carotid artery occlusion in 214 cases (19%), M2 MCA occlusion in 171 cases (15%), ICA to MCA tandem occlusion in 141 cases (13%), and extracranial segment occlusion of the internal carotid artery in 35 cases (3%). The treatment measures included 584 patients (52%) in the combined treatment group, 264 patients (24%) in the drug-only thrombolysis group, and 274 patients (24%) in the group with recanalization of the occluded vessel using only mechanical methods such as stent implantation. The recanalization rate (TIMI 2 or 3) was 160 patients (61%) in the drug-only thrombolysis group, 173 patients (63%) in the mechanical-only group, and 435 patients (74%) in the combined treatment group. Applying binary logistic regression modeling, independent risk factors for thrombolysis recanalization for TIMI 2 or 3 were found to be the use of intra-arterial thrombolysis OR=1.58 and the use of stent implantation OR=1.91. The results of this multicenter retrospective study demonstrated that either pharmacologic thrombolysis alone or mechanical methods alone increased the recanalization rate of embolized vessels, but the combination of pharmacologic and mechanical thrombolysis methods had a higher recanalization rate. However, the combination of pharmacological thrombolysis and mechanical thrombolysis had a higher revascularization rate.