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Published on: January 18, 2018
Five-step protocol for carotid endarterectomy in the managed health care era
J R Syrek1, K D Calligaro, M J Dougherty
1Section of Vascular Surgery, Pennsylvania Hospital, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19106, USA.
Insights
A new 5-step protocol for carotid endarterectomy (CEA) safely reduces costs and maintains low mortality and stroke rates. This cost-effective approach can be a new standard for CEA procedures.
Area of Science:
- Vascular Surgery
- Health Economics
- Patient Safety
Background:
- Elective carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is a common procedure with established safety benchmarks.
- Rising healthcare costs necessitate the development of cost-effective surgical protocols.
- The study aimed to evaluate a novel 5-step protocol for CEA focusing on safety and cost reduction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the safety and cost-effectiveness of a 5-step protocol for elective carotid endarterectomy (CEA).
- To determine if this protocol could maintain established low morbidity and mortality rates while reducing hospital costs.
- To propose this protocol as a potential standard of care in an era of cost containment.
Main Methods:
- A prospective study enrolled 109 patients undergoing CEA between April 1995 and December 1996.
- The protocol included: duplex ultrasonography only, same-day admission, cervical block anesthesia, early ward transfer, and next-day discharge.
- Patients not adhering to the protocol or with emergent conditions were excluded.
Main Results:
- The combined mortality-stroke rate was 1.8% (2 of 109 patients).
- The protocol achieved high adherence rates for key steps: 70% DU-only, 95% same-day admission, 76% cervical block, 59% early transfer, 83% next-day discharge.
- Predicted costs were significantly lower ($10,437) compared to a traditional protocol ($16,073).
Conclusions:
- The 5-step CEA protocol demonstrates significant cost savings.
- The protocol maintains acceptably low morbidity and mortality rates.
- This cost-effective approach may be considered a standard for performing CEA, offering an alternative to endovascular interventions.
Background:
We developed a protocol combining 5 cost-effective strategies to determine whether elective carotid endarterectomy (CEA) could be performed safely without adversely affecting well-established low morbidity and mortality rates and with significant hospital cost savings.
Methods:
Between April 1, 1995, and December 31, 1996, 109 of 141 patients were prospectively enrolled as candidates into a 5-step CEA protocol: (1) duplex ultrasonography (DU) performed at an accredited vascular laboratory as the sole diagnostic carotid preoperative study, (2) admission the day of operation, (3) cervical block anesthesia to eliminate intraoperative electroencephalogram monitoring, (4) transfer from the recovery room after a 4-hour observation period to the vascular ward, and (5) discharge the first postoperative morning. The other 32 patients were excluded from analysis; 16 patients were treated by vascular surgeons not participating in the protocol, 9 were treated concomitantly for other medical problems, and 7 were admitted emergently.
Results:
One patient died of carotid hemorrhage the first postoperative morning, and one had an intraoperative embolic stroke for a combined mortality-stroke rate of 1.8% (2 of 109). Of the 109 patients, 70% (76) underwent operation using DU as the sole diagnostic study, 95% (104) were admitted the day of operation, 76% (83) had cervical block anesthesia, 59% (64) were transferred to the floor the day of operation, and 83% (90) were discharged the morning after operation. None of the 109 patients were adversely affected by these 5 cost-saving strategies except potentially the patient who bled the first postoperative morning. The predicted charges of a patient treated with a perioperative protocol that many vascular surgeons currently use (preoperative arteriography, general anesthesia with intraoperative electroencephalogram monitoring, overnight intensive care unit stay, discharge on postoperative day 2) was $16,073 compared with $10,437 for a patient who completed all 5 steps of the protocol detailed above.
Conclusions:
On the basis of these results documenting significant cost savings and acceptably low morbidity and mortality rates, this 5-step protocol may be considered the standard for performing CEA in this era of cost containment. These results may be compared with endovascular intervention, which has recently been proposed as a less expensive technique to treat carotid disease.
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