Background: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a well-established method of stroke prevention in patients with symptomatic, high-grade internal carotid artery stenosis.
Aims: To assess the change in carotid surgery practice in health board regions in Ireland over two different time periods in the past 11 years (1996-1998/2001-2003).
Methods: Numbers of discharges of patients with a procedure code CEA (38.12) between 1996-1998 and 2001-2003 were obtained from the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) database maintained by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). Population data was obtained from national censuses.
Results: There has been considerable change in the level of carotid surgery activity in specific health board regions between the two periods.
Conclusions: Still no region comes close to achieving levels of CEA recommended by population studies. This is important in the context of the MRC asymptomatic carotid surgery trial (ACST), as the numbers suitable for CEA will probably increase further in the future.