Impact of postoperative transient ischemic attack on survival after carotid revascularization

Major postoperative complications such as stroke and myocardial infarction are usually carefully evaluated in the analysis of carotid revascularization performance. Although transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) are often left unreported, they also may influence long-term outcome. The aim of our study was to evaluate the influence of postoperative TIA in the long-term survival of patients submitted to carotid revascularization.

All consecutive patients submitted to either carotid artery stenting or carotid endarterectomy for symptomatic or asymptomatic carotid stenosis from 2005 to 2012 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were stratified according to their postoperative (30-day) neurologic course (no symptoms, TIA, or stroke). Kaplan-Maier with log-rank analysis was performed to compare the 5-year survival of patients with postoperative TIA, stroke, or neither; factors affecting the 5-year mortality were evaluated by multivariable Cox proportional hazards models.

Over a total of 1390 carotid revascularizations (carotid endarterectomy, n = 868 [62.4%]; carotid artery stenting, n = 522 [37.6%]), neurological perioperative complications occurred in 67 (4.7%) cases (38, 2.7% TIA; 29, 2.0% stroke). At 5-year follow-up, overall survival was significantly lower in patients with postoperative TIA (78.4 ± 8.0% vs 97.4 ± 0.6%; P < .001) and postoperative stroke (68.2 ± 14.4% vs 97.4 ± 0.6%; P = .03) compared with patients without neurological complications. By means of multivariate Cox analysis, postoperative TIA and stroke were independent predictors of decreased survival (hazard ratio [HR], 3.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01-9.72; P = .04, and HR, 3.87; 95% CI, 1.13-13.19; P = .03, respectively), other than age >80 years, postoperative myocardial infarction, and chronic renal failure (HR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.41-4.90; P = .01; HR, 4.33; 95% CI, 2.74-23.79; P = .04; HR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.04-6.19; P = .04, respectively).

TIAs are significant events, possibly determined by a wider extent of atherosclerotic disease, with important effects on long-term mortality similar to that in strokes. Different from most trials evaluating the outcomes of revascularization techniques, the incidence of perioperative TIA should be accurately considered in the analysis.