title: Carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic patients. Assessing results of a quantitative synthesis.
abstract: Carotid endarterectomy (CE) surgery for asymptomatic patients remains controversial despite hundreds of published studies and recent randomized trials. Safety and efficacy are assessed using a quantitative synthesis method derived from meta-analysis and a "critical multiplist" inference approach. In addition, multivariate analyses reveal that use of a surgical shunt could further improve CE outcomes. Methods are examined for both their "confirmatory" and "exploratory" value.
authors.affiliation: Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC 20503.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Langenbrunner
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Wortman
authors.forename: W H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Yeaton
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Holloway
mesh_terms: D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000601:surgery*; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic; D016894:Endarterectomy, Carotid / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical