I. Kantonen et al., INFLUENCE OF SURGICAL EXPERIENCE ON THE RESULTS OF CAROTID SURGERY, European journal of vascular and endovascular surgery, 15(2), 1998, pp. 155-160
Objective: To assess the 30-day mortality and morbidity rates related
to carotid endarterectomy on a nation-wide basis. Design: Retrospectiv
e cross-sectional study based on vascular registry Finnvasc. Materials
and methods: A total of 17 465 recorded vascular and endovascular pro
cedures included exactly 1600 carotid endarterectomies performed by 10
4 surgeons in 23 hospitals. Fourteen per cent of the patients were ope
rated on for asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Results: The combined mort
ality and permanent stroke rate was 3.3%, without any difference betwe
en operations done on symptomatic or asymptomatic patients. There was
a clear inverse association between surgeon's carotid case load and po
or outcomes in carotid surgery (p<0.005), the critical patient mass pe
r surgeon and year being 10 operations. There was no association betwe
en outcome after carotid surgery and hospital volume of carotid operat
ions. Conclusions: Surgeon's experience in carotid surgery clearly imp
roves the results of carotid surgery.