Angiographic long-term outcome of carotid endarterectomy.

Late postoperative digital subtraction angiographic (DSA) findings after a mean follow-up of 6 years were examined after 61 internal carotid artery (ICA) endarterectomies performed for symptomatic (mainly TIAs) ICA stenosis on 52 patients. All 34 surviving patients were re-examined. Six of them (17.6%) had become neurologically symptomatic during the follow-up period with an annual stroke rate of 1%. DSA revealed progression of ipsilateral ICA stenosis in seven cases (23%), two of whom had evidence of bilateral angiographic deterioration. Two out of seven patients had symptomatic ipsilateral restenosis (6%). Progression of contralateral ICA stenosis was detected in five cases (16%).