The review presents the development of causative treatment in the acute phase of ischaemic stroke over the past 20 years. The earliest methods of brain reperfusion, still in use today, are based on intravenous administration of a thrombolytic agent, but as the protocols improved, it was possible to extend the therapeutic time window for this method from initial 3 hours up to 4.5 hours (as standard), and even up to 6 hours in selected patients. The next step of brain reperfusion evolution was local, intra-arterial administration of a thrombolytic drug, and finally mechanical intravascular procedures were developed, which allowed the therapeutic window to be extended to 8 hours. The most advanced approaches, which combine 2 or 3 methods, enable safe and efficacious treatment of the acute phase of ischaemic stroke even up to 12 hours from its onset. This creates new perspectives for a development of vascular neurology and neurointerventional radiology, which in the future will give patients suffering from acute ischaemic stroke much more chances for survival and functional recovery than it has been very recently.