[Venous graft versus carotid thromboendarterectomy (T.E.) (author's transl)]

497 cases of carotid stenosis were operated upon with 2 operative series: one with a venous graft technique and the other by thromboendarterectomy (T.E.). 228 grafts were thus compared with 192 T.E. during the initial postoperative period and 2 and a 1/2 years follow up. The prevalence of immediate postoperative complications was lower in the venous graft group than in the T.E. group but the distribution of patients in terms of neurological symptomatology was not strictly identical. By contrast, comparison of the asymptomatic patients in the two groups showed no morbidity nor mortality. It is thus not possible to state that vein graft is superior to T.E. in the prevention in particular of early embolic complications with the thromboendarterectomized zone as the point of departure and the follow up period is too short to assess the superiority of one or other method in the long term. During the 2 and a 1/2 year follow up period of the present study no pathology related to the vein graft has been seen, confirming the trial already reported.