Journal of vascular surgery
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To examine the incidence of and the anatomic factors that may contribute to spinal cord ischemia (SCI) in patients with a history of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). ⋯ Although the causes of SCI after TEVAR are multifactorial, abdominal aortic anatomy appears to be associated with development of this complication. Patients with either prior AAA repair or those with unrepaired AAA appear to be at increased risk for SCI.
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Carotid artery stenting (CAS) is emerging as an acceptable treatment alternative to surgery for patients with carotid artery stenosis. The major risk of CAS is cerebral embolization of plaque and thrombus causing stroke or asymptomatic brain infarction. Use of embolic protection devices (EPD) to trap emboli before they reach the brain is now standard practice in CAS. The pore size of the currently available filters is >100 microns and emboli smaller than the EPD pores can still reach the brain. While the use of EPD is widespread, little evidence exists of their in vivo efficacy in preventing distal embolization. Our aim was to quantify the number of emboli reaching the brain with the device in place. Therefore, the expected value of this report is in its description of a novel application of transcranial Doppler (TCD). Due to the limited number of cases, it is not intended to support the use of one EPD over another. ⋯ EPD significantly reduces but does not eliminate the number of microemboli reaching the brain during carotid artery angioplasty and stenting. We propose monitoring of CAS with submandibular and transtemporal TCD probes to further evaluate the practice of distal embolization protection. Although our study is not powered to make any recommendations about EPDs, we believe that sequential dual probe TCD monitoring is a worthy tool with the potential to give vital information to assess the various devices and the techniques of utilization.