Carotid endarterectomy in the real world: Controversies and thinkings / 第二军医大学学报

ABSTRACT

As the “gold standard” treatment for carotid artery stenosis to prevent ischemic stroke, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has heen widely accepted in the western countries; hut was developing rapidly only within the past years in China. We noticed that many surgeons in China can master the surgical skills, hut there is still much room for improvement in their concept understanding, surgical procedure selections, technical concepts, complication management and other aspects. Many surgeons are still puzzled by the following questions during their clinical practices, such as “Is it the plaque or intima that should he resected in CEA?” “How to resect?” “How to select the resecting site?” “To what extent should it be resected?”. and “Whether to perform additional vascular culling and anastomotic plasty?”. Hereby, we summarize the above four controversies of CEA in the real world, including concept doubt, surgical tangle, conceptual differences and technical confusion. We also put forward our thinkings on the issues and shared the latest developments in this field.