Stents may double the risk of stroke in patients over 70

Research led by

ucl.ac.uk/neuroscience/Page.php?ID=12&ResearcherID=87" target="_self"> Professor Martin Brown (Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation) and published in the Lancet finds that stroke patients over 70 who get stents to keep their arteries open, may double their risk of having another stroke or dying, compared to patients who get surgery (carotid endarterectomy).

The researchers from the Carotid Stenting Trialists Collaboration pooled the data from all 3,433 patients with symptomatic carotid stenosis included in three previous trials of carotid stenting. 1,725 had undergone stenting and 1,708 endarterectomy. They then looked at how many of these in each group had either had a stroke after the procedure or had died.

In patients older than 70 years, the risk of stenting was double that of carotid endarterectomy, but in patients younger than 70 years old the risks were almost identical in both groups. The authors of the paper concluded that stenting for symptomatic carotid stenosis should be avoided in older patients, but might be a viable option for younger patients.  

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reference >>The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 10 September 2010
doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61009. Short-term outcome after stenting versus endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis: a preplanned meta-analysis of individual patient data