[Carotid thromboendarterectomy. The authors' personal experience]

Carotid endarterectomy is the most frequently employed surgical intervention in the treatment of strokes due to atherosclerosis obstruction of the blood flow in extracranial carotid district. The presence of cerebrovascular clinical symptoms is accepted indication for surgical treatment. For the patients without symptoms there is, however, not yet a complete agreement on the treatment modalities. The authors believe that, due to the low morbidity and mortality of carotid endarterectomy, a surgical approach can be used in patients in which is present a degree of stenosis > 75% and, moreover, in patients where the degree of stenosis is > 50%, but in which the atherosclerotic plaque is non homogeneous due to the presence of ulceration or hemorrhage. Non invasive ultrasonic techniques constitute the mainstay of the diagnostic procedures for carotid artery disease and in recent years they have led to improved sensitivity and ability in differentiating between the operable carotid stenoses and the inoperable obstructions. With these techniques it is possible to arrive to a 90% diagnostic accuracy. Also the recently introduced angio-RM has comparable results, but the high costs do not make it possible to use it in screening procedures. Many doubts are present regarding the possibility of evaluating the occurrence of neurologic deficits during the surgical procedures. Local anaesthetic techniques are somewhat popular among vascular surgeons in that they allow an immediate evaluation of the neurologic activity of the patients during surgical treatment. However reports have been published in the literature of neurologic deficits arising after the period of test occlusion.