Subtle cerebral damage after shunting vs non shunting during carotid endarterectomy
D Palombo1, G Lucertini, S Mambrini
1Unit of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria San Martino, Genova, Italy.
Objective:
To compare the extent of subtle cerebral damage (SCD) in patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy with or without shunt placement.
Design:
Prospective, randomised study.
Patients And Methods:
We assessed a consecutive series of 96 patients undergoing endarterectomy for severe unilateral left carotid stenosis who had been randomly assigned to receive a shunt (48) or not (48). Eligibility criteria included age up to 80 years and Mini-Mental State Examination score >24 points. Patients underwent neuropsychological testing before surgery. Serum concentrations of S100 protein, neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured intraoperatively before and after carotid clamping. Finally, each patient underwent neuropsychological testing 3 weeks after surgery.
Results:
Patients with and without shunt had similar serum concentrations of S100 protein, NSE and IL-6 as well as similar neuropsychological test scores, all p>0.05.
Conclusions:
There was no difference in subtle cerebral damage between patients randomized to receive a shunt or not.