Carotid Artery Stenting for Stroke Prevention

Stroke is a global epidemic with a significant economic burden to patients, families, and societies at large. In the industrialized world, stroke is the third most common cause of death, the second most common cause of dementia, and the most common reason for acquired disability in adulthood. Overall, 20%-30% of ischemic strokes are related to extracranial carotid artery stenosis. Revascularization with carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is the gold-standard treatment for patients with significant carotid stenosis. Carotid artery stenting (CAS) has become an accepted alternative to CEA over the past decade for patients at high surgical risk, and has progressively evolved into an elegant procedure over the past 3 decades, with dedicated equipment including proximal embolic occlusion devices that have minimized procedural strokes. High-surgical-risk CAS registries have established this procedure as an alternative to CEA for high-risk patients. The Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy vs Stent Trial (CREST) has shown similar outcomes with CAS and CEA for patients at standard risk, although CAS is associated with higher minor stroke events and CEA is associated with higher myocardial infarction (MI) events. However, CAS is technically challenging and requires a meticulous approach, with a protracted learning curve that should involve experience with > 70 cases. Careful patient selection is instrumental in avoiding procedural complications, and the procedure should be avoided in patients with prohibitive anatomy. This article reviews the use of CAS for extracranial carotid artery stenosis, considering technical aspects, registry and clinical trial outcomes data, determinants of success, and contemporary guidelines.