Invited commentary

The North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET) concluded that carotid surgery for symptomatic stenosis is better than medical therapy, and the conferred benefit of surgery is proportional to the degree of stenosis.1 The European Carotid Surgery Trial (ECST) came to a similar conclusion and that “on average, the immediate risk of surgery was worth trading off against the long-term risk of stroke without surgery when the stenosis was greater than 80% diameter.”2 The preceding and other studies leave little room for doubt that endarterectomy is beneficial to symptomatic patients; what is still being debated is the exact timing of surgery.
Source: Journal of Vascular Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Clinical research study Source Type: research