[Carotid endarterectomy--5-year results in St. Gallen canton hospital]

The 5-year results following carotid endarterectomy at our institution were analysed retrospectively. The aim of this study was to compare our results with those published in the ECST and NASCET studies as a measure of quality control. We studied the outcome of 101 carotid endarterectomies which were performed between 1989 and 1993 in 90 patients. 74 operations were carried out in "symptomatic" and 27 in "asymptomatic" patients. The standard anaesthetic procedure was a cervical plexus block, which was completed in 87% of all operations. The 84 surviving patients on December the 31th 1993 were all followed up with a clinical and directional Doppler examination in our angiologic outpatient clinic during the first half of 1994. The perioperative stroke rate was 1.98% for the whole group and 2.7% for the "symptomatic" group. The cumulative stroke rate for a period of three years (measured by the Kapplan-Meier method) amounted to 3% (1% per year); the cumulative stroke rate for the "symptomatic" group was 4% in a two year period (2% per year). The results and outcome of carotid endarterectomy at our institution are comparable to the ECST and NASCET studies regarding perioperative mortality, perioperative stroke rate and rate of ipsilateral stroke during the first 2 years after operation.