Background: Stenting may be a safer alternative to endarterectomy for treating carotid artery stenosis (CAS), but its long-term efficacy is uncertain. There is a lack of long-term and noncontrolled clinical trial data that reflects "real-world" CAS. This study aimed to analyze the long-term efficacy and safety of our center's CAS procedure.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed our database of patients who underwent CAS. Patient demographic data, previous risk factors, diagnostic and procedural information, and clinical and image follow-up data were collected from up to 1 year after treatment.
Results: Overall, 187 patients were analyzed. Our patient population largely comprised higher-risk patients compared with the patient populations of randomized controlled trials. We had more symptomatic (n = 145, 77.5%) than asymptomatic patients (n = 42, 22.5%), and 49% of patients had >90% stenosis. By the 30-day follow-up, there were 10 major adverse events (5.3%) observed in 8 patients (4.2%), including 7 strokes (3 ischemic and 4 hemorrhagic) and 3 deaths. By the 1-year follow-up, 6 strokes and 5 deaths occurred in 9 patients (4.8%), and color Doppler control showed that 87.6% of patients had stenosis-free stents.
Conclusions: Despite our high-risk population group, there were high rates of successful stent placement, low complication rates, good clinical outcomes, and low rates of stenting restenosis.
Keywords: Carotid Doppler; Carotid stenosis; Carotid stent; Endarterectomy; Ischemic stroke.
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