Cervical access for filter-protected carotid artery stenting: a useful tool to reduce cerebral embolisation.

Background: Filter-protected transcervical carotid artery stenting (CAS) has been suggested to reduce the intraoperative cerebral embolisation observed during transfemoral CAS. We therefore evaluated clinical outcome and incidence of ischaemic lesions at diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) after transcervical and transfemoral CAS. Methods: From March 2007 to May 2009, we performed filter-protected CAS in 135 patients with symptomatic (30%) or asymptomatic (70%) carotid stenosis above 70% and below 95%. In 44 patients with risky femoral access or unfavourable aortic arch anatomy, access to common carotid artery was achieved by a small cervical incision. In another 91 procedures we used a classic percutaneous femoral access. Preoperative and postoperative DW-MRI scans were obtained after 111 procedures (82%) - 35 transcervical and 76 transfemoral. Results: The incidence of clinical events (transient ischaemic attack (TIA) and stroke) was 2.3% after transcervical CAS and 19.8% after transfemoral CAS (P < 0.01), without any deaths. DW-MRI disclosed new ischaemic lesions in five patients (5/35, 14.3%) after transcervical CAS and in 28 patients (28/76, 36.8%) after transfemoral CAS (P = 0.015). All ischaemic lesions depicted after transcervical procedures were ipsilateral to the treated artery. Conclusions: Transcervical filter-protected CAS, compared with classic percutaneous procedures, seems to reduce clinical events and DW-MRI ischaemic damage and may be useful in selected patients. © 2009 European Society for Vascular Surgery.