Carotid endarterectomy: results in 100 patients

One hundred twenty-two carotid endarterectomies were done in 100 patients in various clinical states of occlusive disease (4 with asymptomatic bruit, 61 with transient ischemia attacks, 35 following stroke) with an overall operative mortality of 3.27%. The 4 deaths all occurred among patients who had existing deficits when operated on. Among 82 operations done for transient ischemia or asymptomatic bruit there were no deaths; 2 transient but no permanent deficits resulted. Surgical management is described. During long-term follow-up, 3 patients in the transient ischemia group acquired deficits (4.6%), but no strokes occurred among the patients with asymptomatic bruits. Six cerebral deaths are reported (both early and late); 5 of them occurred among poststroke patients and the sixth was related to an unoperated, diseased carotid artery.