patients with AIS and occlusion of a large cerebral artery demonstrated by computed tomography (CT) angiography (CTA) or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).[@bib7]

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new and varied challenges to the still-evolving UK MT services. Practices within interventional neuroradiology (INR) theatres have had to be significantly modified to protect both staff and patients. National and international interventional and neuro-interventional societies have issued guidelines regarding recommended changes in practice, some of which have contributed to forming a framework for current clinical practice.[@bib8] ^,^ [@bib9] As the UK emerges from the worst of the initial peak of the pandemic, the authors, on behalf of the British Society of Neuroradiologists (BSNR) and the UK Neurointerventional Group (UKNG), sought to review the initial challenges to the UK\'s MT service and its response in order to evaluate and disseminate the lessons learned.

Materials and methods {#sec2}
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An online survey (Google Forms) was sent out on 1 May 2020 to all 28 UK neuroscience centres that have the potential capability to perform MT (Electronic Supplementary Material S1: Survey).

Standard data and statistical analysis (*t*-test and Fisher\'s exact test) was carried out using GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software). Statistical significance was set at p\<0.05.

Number of MTs performed {#sec2.1}
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To gain insight into MT service provision across the UK, the survey asked for the number of patients undergoing MT during each month from January to April 2020, in order to document the rate of MT procedures carried out immediately before and during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.

MT patient pathway {#sec2.2}
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To establish changes made to the MT triage protocols for patients with AIS during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of a positive COVID-19 test result, the survey requested information regarding what screening measures for COVID