Transcarotid Artery Revascularization Learning Curves Differ between Surgeon Experience Level

There has been ensuing interest in adopting transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR), because of its low perioperative stroke and complication rates. In our study, we aimed to identify the case number at which there is improvement in TCAR technical proficiency. We also assessed how surgeon experience influenced outcomes.

The primary outcome was technical proficiency, measured by skin-to-skin, fluoroscopy, and flow reversal times. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay and perioperative complication rate. Data was collected from a deidentified database, which included all patients that had a TCAR between 2017 and 2023 at 1 of 4 hospitals. Cases were grouped by the experience of the surgeon who performed the case (≤10 and > 10 years). Linear mixed models were used to analyze primary outcomes after being log-transformed, due to their skewed distributions. The estimated level of the outcome was compared at the first, fifth, 10th and 15th surgery between surgeon groups, and the significance level was adjusted using the Bonferroni correction.

There were 160 cases performed by 13 surgeons included in the study. Patients with hostile necks (23.9% vs. 9.7%, P = 0.015) and contralateral occlusions (7.5% vs. 0%, P = 0.007) were operated on more frequently by surgeons with ≤10 years of experience. There was no difference in secondary outcomes between groups. While primary outcomes between groups were not significant when comparing median values, linear mixed models demonstrated a significant improvement among the group of surgeons with less experience after the 15th case relative to their senior partners. At this point, they were operating with 30% less skin-to-skin time (P = 0.002, 95% confidence interval (CI) 13%-44%) and 51% less fluoroscopy time (P = 0.005, 95% CI 20%-70%) compared to surgeons with >10 years of experience. There was no significant difference between groups with respect to flow reversal times.

There was significant improvement experienced by the junior attendings relative to their senior partners after the 15th case. This was not influenced by patient characteristics nor the type of anesthesia used.