Safety of carotid endarterectomy in relation to the timing after ischemic stroke

Aim: To assess the procedural risk of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in relation to its timing after ischemic stroke and to define the reasons that delay surgery beyond the recommended time interval. Materials and methods: A retrospective analysis was performed using prospectively collected data from all consecutive patients with symptomatic internal carotid artery stenosis who underwent CEA during the period from January 2013 to August 2019. The patients were divided into four groups according to the timing of CEA: group 1 - CEA within 2 days; group 2 - CEA between 3-7 days; group 3 - CEA between 8-14 days; and group 4 - CEA between 15-180 days. The primary outcome measure was the combined perioperative rate of any stroke or death within 30 days. Results: A total of 246 patients were included in the study. The median time interval between stroke and CEA was 8 days. A total of 191 patients (77.6%) underwent CEA within the recommended 14-day period from ischemic stroke, whereas 55 patients (22.4%) underwent CEA more than 14 days after stroke. Medical reasons were the cause of CEA delay in only 18 out of these 55 patients. For the entire cohort, the overall 30-day rate of any stroke or death was 3.7% (9 patients out of 246). The procedural risk was 5.9% (3 patients out of 51) in group 1, 1.5% (1 patient of 68) in group 2, 5.6% (4 patients out of 72) in group 3, and 1.8% (1 patient out of 55) in group 4 (P = 0.477). Conclusion: In this study, the time interval between the stroke and CEA was not associated with significant increase of procedural risk of any stroke or death.