Perioperative Stroke in Carotid Artery Stenting as a Surrogate Marker and Predictor for 30-day Postprocedural Mortality - A Pooled Analysis of 156,000 Patients with Carotid Artery Disease.

BACKGROUND

Carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is being recognized as an effective alternative for carotid endarterectomy (CEA). CAS is especially preferred over CEA in high-risk surgical patients with severe carotid stenosis. However, CAS carries an increased risk of stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA).

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association between periprocedural stroke/TIA and 30-day mortality in carotid stenosis patients undergoing CAS.

METHODS

We searched PubMed, Embase, and World Science for relevant publications. Studies reporting on perioperative neurologic status (stroke/TIA) and 30-day mortality in patients undergoing CAS were included. Sensitivity, specificity, pooled odds ratio (OR), and relative risk (RR) of perioperative stroke in predicting 30-day mortality following CAS were calculated.

RESULTS

146 studies with 156,854 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The mean patient age was 70.7 years, and 57.6% were males. Only 26.5% of the CAS cohort were symptomatic and 15.2% had bilateral carotid disease. The incidence of perioperative TIA and stroke were 2.4 and 2.7 per 100 CAS procedure, respectively. Around 11.8% of stroke-events were fatal. The pooled OR of 30-day mortality after perioperative stroke was 24.58 (95% CI, 19.92-30.32) and the pooled RR was 21.65 (95% CI, 17.87-26.22). Perioperative stroke had a sensitivity of 42.0% (95% CI 37.8-46.4%) and specificity of 97.0% (95% CI 96.7-97.3%) in predicting 30-day mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

Perioperative stroke drastically increases the risk of 30-day mortality. The occurrence of perioperative stroke exhibited high specificity but modest sensitivity in predicting 30-day mortality following CAS. This highlights the importance of neurophysiologic monitoring to detect intraoperative cerebral ischemia and perform timely interventions.