title: Surgical and nonsurgical treatment of total carotid artery occlusion.
abstract: The natural history of totally occluded internal and common carotid arteries was studied in 102 patients (109 arteries) with a 97 percent follow-up (mean 39.7 months.) Symptomatic occlusions occurred in 72.6 percent of the patients, the reconstructed group (46 patients) having a greater number of symptomatic vessels than the nonreconstructed group (63 patients) (p less than 0.05). Contralateral disease was encountered in 46 percent. Initial mortality was 5 percent. Twenty patients (19.6 percent) were dead at the time of follow-up. Half of these deaths were from strokes and three fourths from atherosclerotic causes. Persisting neurologic symptoms were present in 14 percent of the patients and new events occurred in 5 percent. Fifteen percent of initially asymptomatic vessels were symptomatic at last follow-up. Twenty-one percent of the symptomatic occluded vessels were symptomatic on follow-up, 16 percent being in the reconstructed group and 26 percent in the nonreconstructed group.
mesh_terms: D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000601:surgery; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D002548:Cerebral Revascularization; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D004691:Endarterectomy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012306:Risk