Techniques for Treatment of Carotid Stenosis

To the Editor Dr Schermerhorn and colleagues compared transcarotid artery revascularization with transfemoral carotid stenting for treatment of carotid stenosis and found that transcarotid artery revascularization was associated with a lower risk of stroke or death. However, 37% of the patients (n  = 1965) were excluded from the transcarotid artery revascularization group and 50% (n = 3354) from the transfemoral carotid stenting group. When such a large percentage of the registry data are excluded, it becomes difficult to make a fair comparison without eliminating selection bias. The authors should have reported the complete raw data from all patients in the registry or suggested a randomized clinical trial.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research