Carotid endarterectomy with and without preoperative angiography

Background and Purpose: We aimed to investigate whether carotid endarterectomy based on preoperative standardized Doppler-/duplex sonography but without x-ray angiography is associated with an increased operative stroke rate. Methods: During a 8 year period 392 consecutive patients (mean age 65.6 years, SD 9 years; 74% men) underwent carotid endarterectomy at a single center. All patients had standardized preoperative and postoperative neurological examination including colour-coded duplex sonography. 126 patients (32%) underwent x-ray angiography before endarterectomy, 266 (68%) were operated only on sonographi…