Ellinoora Aro1, Petra Ijäs2, Leena Vikatmaa3, Lauri Soinne2, Reijo Sund4, Maarit Venermo1, Pirkka Vikatmaa5. 1. Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. 2. Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Neurosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 3. Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. 4. Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; Centre for Research Methods, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 5. Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: pirkka.vikatmaa@hus.fi.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Considering carotid endarterectomy (CEA), reporting treatment delay, symptom status, and surgical complication rates separately gives an incomplete picture of efficacy; therefore, the aim was to combine these factors and develop a reporting standard that better describes the number of potentially prevented strokes. With a real life cohort and theoretical inclusion scenarios, the aim was to explore the stroke prevention potential of different carotid practices. METHODS: Landmark studies for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were revisited. By using published estimates of treatment effect, a simplified calculator was designed to assess the five year stroke prevention rate per 1000 CEAs (stroke prevention potential [SPP], range 0-478), including the presence and recentness of symptoms, sex, increasing stenosis severity, and complication rates. Patients operated on for carotid stenosis at Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) between 2008 and 2016 were collected from a vascular registry (HUSVASC) and categorised according to the model. The local annual complication rate was re-evaluated and added to the model. The HUH patient cohort was incorporated into the SPP model, and changes over time analysed. Finally, theoretical changes in patient selection were compared in order to explore the theoretical impact of patient selection and shortening of the delay. RESULTS: Fifteen hundred and five symptomatic and 356 asymptomatic carotid stenoses were operated on with stroke plus death rates of 3.6% and 0.3%, respectively. The proportion of CEAs performed within two weeks of the index event increased over the follow up period, being 77% in 2016. The SPP increased from 123 in 2008 to 229 in 2016. Theoretically, 350 ischaemic strokes were prevented in the period 2008-16, with 1861 CEAs. CONCLUSIONS: National and international comparison of different CEA series is irrelevant if the inclusion criteria are not considered. A calculator that is easy to apply to large scale high quality registered data was developed and tested. SPP was found to increase over time, which is a probable sign of improved patient selection and an increased number of strokes prevented by the CEAs performed.
OBJECTIVE: Considering carotid endarterectomy (CEA), reporting treatment delay, symptom status, and surgical complication rates separately gives an incomplete picture of efficacy; therefore, the aim was to combine these factors and develop a reporting standard that better describes the number of potentially prevented strokes. With a real life cohort and theoretical inclusion scenarios, the aim was to explore the stroke prevention potential of different carotid practices. METHODS: Landmark studies for symptomatic and asymptomatic patients were revisited. By using published estimates of treatment effect, a simplified calculator was designed to assess the five year stroke prevention rate per 1000 CEAs (stroke prevention potential [SPP], range 0-478), including the presence and recentness of symptoms, sex, increasing stenosis severity, and complication rates. Patients operated on for carotid stenosis at Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) between 2008 and 2016 were collected from a vascular registry (HUSVASC) and categorised according to the model. The local annual complication rate was re-evaluated and added to the model. The HUHpatient cohort was incorporated into the SPP model, and changes over time analysed. Finally, theoretical changes in patient selection were compared in order to explore the theoretical impact of patient selection and shortening of the delay. RESULTS: Fifteen hundred and five symptomatic and 356 asymptomatic carotid stenoses were operated on with stroke plus death rates of 3.6% and 0.3%, respectively. The proportion of CEAs performed within two weeks of the index event increased over the follow up period, being 77% in 2016. The SPP increased from 123 in 2008 to 229 in 2016. Theoretically, 350 ischaemic strokes were prevented in the period 2008-16, with 1861 CEAs. CONCLUSIONS: National and international comparison of different CEA series is irrelevant if the inclusion criteria are not considered. A calculator that is easy to apply to large scale high quality registered data was developed and tested. SPP was found to increase over time, which is a probable sign of improved patient selection and an increased number of strokes prevented by the CEAs performed.
Authors: Kosmas I Paraskevas; Dimitri P Mikhailidis; Hediyeh Baradaran; Alun H Davies; Hans-Henning Eckstein; Gianluca Faggioli; Jose Fernandes E Fernandes; Ajay Gupta; Mateja K Jezovnik; Stavros K Kakkos; Niki Katsiki; M Eline Kooi; Gaetano Lanza; Christos D Liapis; Ian M Loftus; Antoine Millon; Andrew N Nicolaides; Pavel Poredos; Rodolfo Pini; Jean-Baptiste Ricco; Tatjana Rundek; Luca Saba; Francesco Spinelli; Francesco Stilo; Sherif Sultan; Clark J Zeebregts; Seemant Chaturvedi Journal: J Stroke Date: 2022-01-31 Impact factor: 6.967