title: Carotid endarterectomy for critical stenosis prior to cardiac surgery: Should it be done? A retrospective cohort study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stroke remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality after cardiac surgery affecting 2% of patients. Extra-cranial carotid artery disease has been implicated in the aetiology of post cardiac surgery stroke. The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with or without staged carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in a tertiary referral centre.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 5 year retrospective study was performed. The primary endpoints were defined as peri-operative stroke and myocardial infarction (MI) with secondary outcome defined as death within 30 days of surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In total 5924 cardiac procedures and 29 staged CEA's were performed. The rate of stroke and MI was significantly higher in patients undergoing staged CEA pre-cardiac surgery compared to patients undergoing cardiac surgery with confirmed or presumed normal carotid arteries (10.34% vs 1.43%; P = .008 and 13.79% vs 0.38%; P < .0001, respectively). There was no significant difference in the stroke and MI rate in those patients undergoing cardiac surgery with confirmed or presumed normal carotid arteries compared to those with significant carotid disease undergoing cardiac surgery with no prior carotid intervention (1.43% vs 3.16%; P > .05 and 0.38% vs 1.05%; P > .05, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Carotid disease is associated with an increased risk of stroke post cardiac surgery. Staged carotid intervention cannot be justified based on these results. Increased risk of stroke post cardiac surgery in patients with significant carotid disease needs to be accepted, as the risk of stroke and MI during carotid intervention pre cardiac surgery is significantly higher.
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK. Electronic address: mohammedashrafi@doctors.org.uk.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashrafi
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ball
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK.
authors.forename: Abid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK.
authors.forename: Iraj
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zeynali
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool, UK.
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Perricone
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D016893:Carotid Stenosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016894:Endarterectomy, Carotid; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011300:Preoperative Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Cardiac surgery; Carotid disease; Carotid endarterectomy; Stroke