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

Percutaneous revascularization techniques have dramatically altered traditi onal approaches to the management of both coronary and peripheral vascular disease. Their major advantage is that they are less invasive than conventi onal surgical procedures, offering revascularization without the risk of ge neral anesthesia and with lesser procedural morbidity and mortality, shorte r hospital stay, and lower cost. In patients with comorbidities that increa se their risk of surgical complications, percutaneous revascularization tec hniques are the procedures of choice. The Achilles heel of balloon angiopla sty, the higher risk of lesion recurrence, restenosis, has been markedly re duced with the use of endovascular stents. Over the past 20 years, percutan eous angioplasty and stenting have become accepted alternatives to surgical revascularization of aortoiliac, renal, femoropopliteal, subclavian, brach iocephalic, and dialysis access lesions. The most recent application of per cutaneous intervention has been to explore its clinical utility and safety for stroke prevention in stenotic extracranial carotid arteries. Cathet. Ca rdiovasc. Intervent. 51:339-346, 2000. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.