Purpose: To evaluate clinical outcomes in patients undergoing carotid artery stenting (CAS) with routine use of a cerebral embolic protection device (EPD).
Methods: A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted of 490 consecutive patients (365 men; mean age 70.7+/-8.5 years) who underwent CAS with EPD between January 1999 and December 2007 at 2 institutions with large referral practices. There were 163 symptomatic patients with stenosis >or=50% and 327 asymptomatic patients with >or=80% diameter stenosis treated in 536 CAS procedures. Nearly a quarter (116, 23.7%) of the cohort had diabetes. High-risk surgical features were present in 141 (28.8%): 73 (14.9%) aged >or=80 years, 25 (5.1%) with significant heart disease, 23 (4.6%) with postsurgical restenosis, and 16 (3.2%) with contralateral carotid occlusion. An EPD was successfully placed in 512 (95.5%) patients.
Results: The incidence of any stroke within 30 days was 3.3% (16/490), of which the majority (13, 2.6%) were ipsilateral [5 (1.0%) major and 8 (1.6%) minor]. The incidence of major adverse events (MAE), i.e., any stroke, death or myocardial infarction, within 30 days was 3.7% (18/490); the incidence of 30-day any stroke/death was 3.7% (18/490), while the cumulative incidence of any stroke/death at 1 year was 6.1% (30/490). In symptomatic patients, the 30-day MAE rate was 6.7% (11/163) versus 2.1% (7/237) in the asymptomatic group (p = 0.02). A subgroup analysis based on surgical risk showed that the 30-day MAE rate was similar between high-risk and non-high-risk patients [4.9% (7/144) versus 3.2% (11/346); p = 0.5].
Conclusion: In this large real-world cohort, CAS with routine use of EPDs was technically feasible, clinically safe, and associated with a low rate of periprocedural and 1-year events; results were similar irrespective of surgical risk.