Carotid stent placement for extracranial carotid artery disease: Current state of the art

Percutaneous revascularization techniques have dramatically altered traditional approaches to the management of both coronary and peripheral vascular disease. Their major advantage is that they are less invasive than conventional surgical procedures, offering revascularization without the risk of general anesthesia and with lesser procedural morbidity and mortality, shorter hospital stay, and lower cost. In patients with comorbidities that increase their risk of surgical complications, percutaneous revascularization techniques are the procedures of choice. The Achilles heel of balloon angioplasty, the higher risk of lesion recurrence, restenosis, has been markedly reduced with the use of endovascular stents. Over the past 20 years, percutaneous angioplasty and stenting have become accepted alternatives to surgical revascularization of aortoiliac, renal, femoropopliteal, subclavian, brachiocephalic, and dialysis access lesions. The most recent application of percutaneous intervention has been to explore its clinical utility and safety for stroke prevention in stenotic extracranial carotid arteries. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent. 51:339-346, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.