Comprehensive comparison of carotid endarterectomy primary closure and patch angioplasty: A single-institution experience

Background: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is an effective intervention for the treatment of high-grade carotid stenosis. Technical preferences exist in the operative steps including the use patch for arteriotomy closure. The goals of this study are to compare the rate of postoperative complications and the rate of recurrent stenosis between patients undergoing primary versus patch closure during CEA. Methods: Retrospective chart review was conducted for patients who underwent CEA at single institution. Vascular surgeons mainly performed patch closure technique while neurosurgeons used primary closure. Patients’ baseline characteristics as well as intraprocedural data, periprocedural complications, and postprocedural follow-up outcomes were captured. Results: Seven hundred and thirteen charts were included for review with mean age of 70.5 years (SD = 10.4) and males representing 64.2% of the cohort. About 49% of patients underwent primary closure while 364 (51%) patients underwent patch closure. Severe stenosis was more prevalent in patients receiving patch closure (94.5% vs. 89.4%; P = 0.013). The incidence of overall complications did not differ between the two procedures (odds ratio = 1.23, 95% confidence intervals = 0.82–1.85; P = 0.353) with the most common complications being neck hematoma, strokes, and TIA. Doppler ultrasound imaging at 6 months postoperative follow-up showed evidence of recurrent stenosis in 15.7% of the primary closure patients compared to 16% in patch closure cohort. Conclusion: Both primary closure and patch closure techniques seem to have similar risk profiles and are equally robust techniques to utilize for CEA procedures.

Carotid artery web with fetal posterior cerebral artery variant masquerading as recurrent ipsilateral cryptogenic ischaemic strokes

A 31-year-old woman was referred to vascular surgeons with the history of recurrent ischaemic strokes in two cerebral artery territories over a span of 1 year. On investigation, she was found to have a right internal carotid artery web, with thrombus and a fetal right posterior cerebral artery (PCA), which explained the ischaemic strokes in right middle cerebral and PCA territory. The rare association of these two infrequent entities makes the case a singular one in the medical literature. Successful surgical excision was done after multidisciplinary teamwork. The carotid web was excised as part of carotid artery endarterectomy and repaired with great saphenous vein patch angioplasty. The patient made a good recovery.

Ten-year long-term outcomes of conventional and eversion carotid endarterectomy. Multicenter study

Aim. To analyze the immediate and long-term outcomes of eversion and conventional carotid endarterectomy (CE) with patch angioplasty.Material and methods. For the period from February 1, 2006 to September 1, 2021, the present retrospective multicenter open comparative study included 25106 patients who underwent CE. Depending on the technique of operation, the following groups were formed: group 1 (n=18362) — eversion CE; group 2 (n=6744) — conventional CE with patch angioplasty. The long-term follow-up period was 124,7±53,8 months.Results. In the hospital postoperative period, the groups were comparable in incidence of all complications: lethal outcome (group 1: 0,19%, n=36; group 2: 0,17%, n=12; p=0,89; odds ratio (OR) =1,1; 95% confidence interval (CI) =0,57- 2,11); myocardial infarction (MI) (group 1: 0,15%, n=28; group 2: 0,13%, n=9; p=0,87; OR=1,14; 95% CI=0,53-2,42); stroke (group 1: 0,33%, n=62; group 2: 0,4%, n=27; p=0,53; OR=0,84; 95% CI=0,53-1,32); bleeding with hematoma formation (group 1: 0,39%, n=73; group 2: 0,41%, n=28; p=0,93; OR=0,95; 95% CI=0,61-1,48); internal carotid artery (ICA) thrombosis (group 1: 0,05%, n=11; group 2: 0,07%, n=5, p=0,9; OR=0,8; 95% CI=0,28-2,32). In the long-term follow-up, the groups were comparable only in MI incidence: group 1: 0,56%, n=103; group 2: 0,66%, n=45; p=0,37; OR=0,84; 95% CI=0,59-1,19. All other complications were more frequent after conventional CE with patch angioplasty: all-cause death (group 1: 2,7%, n=492; group 2: 9,1%, n=616; p<0,0001; OR=0,27; 95% CI=0,24-0,3); lethal ischemic stroke (group 1: 1,0%, n=180; group 2: 5,5%, n=371; p<0,0001; OR=0,17; 95% CI=0,14-0,21); non-lethal ischemic stroke (group 1: 0,62%, n=114; group 2: 7,0%, n=472; p<0,0001; OR=0,08; 95% CI=0,06-0,1); ICA restenosis >60%, requiring re-revascularization (group 1: 1,6%, n=296; group 2: 12,6%, n=851; p<0,0001; OR=0,11; 95% CI=0,09-0,12). Thus, the composite endpoint (lethal ischemic stroke + non-lethal ischemic stroke + MI) after conventional CE with patch angioplasty was more than 6 times higher than this parameter of eversion CE: group 1: 2,2%, n=397; group 2: 13,2%, n=888; p<0,0001; OR=0,14; 95% CI=0,12-1,16.Conclusion. Conventional CE with patch angioplasty is not prefer for cerebral revascularization in the presence of hemodynamically significant ICA stenosis due to the high prevalence of deaths, stroke, and ICA restenosis in the long-term follow-up.

The application of tissue-engineered fish swim bladder vascular graft

Small diameter (< 6 mm) prosthetic vascular grafts continue to show very low long-term patency, but bioengineered vascular grafts show promising results in preclinical experiments. To assess a new scaffold source, we tested the use of decellularized fish swim bladder as a vascular patch and tube in rats. Fresh goldfish (Carassius auratus) swim bladder was decellularized, coated with rapamycin and then formed into patches or tubes for implantation in vivo. The rapamycin-coated patches showed decreased neointimal thickness in both the aorta and inferior vena cava patch angioplasty models. Rapamycin-coated decellularized swim bladder tubes implanted into the aorta showed decreased neointimal thickness compared to uncoated tubes, as well as fewer macrophages. These data show that the fish swim bladder can be used as a scaffold source for tissue-engineering vascular patches or vessels.

Completion Arteriogram Following Carotid Endarterectomy Yields Lower Perioperative Stroke Rate

Introduction: Completion imaging following carotid endarterectomy (CEA) remains controversial. We present our experience performing routine completion arteriography (CA). Methods: A retrospective review of our prospectively maintained institutional database was performed for patients undergoing isolated CEA. Results: 1439 isolated CEAs with CA were performed on 1297 patients. CEA was for asymptomatic lesions in 70% (1003) of cases. There were no complications related to arteriography. An abnormal arteriogram documented significant abnormalities in the internal carotid artery (ICA) and prompted revision in 1.7% (24/1439) of cases: 20 unsatisfactory distal endpoints of the endarterectomy (12 residual stenoses, 7 intimal flaps, and 1 dissection), 3 kinks or stenoses within the body of the patch, and 1 thrombus. Of the 20 distal endpoint lesions, stent deployment was used in 17 cases and patch revision in 3 cases. The other 4 cases were treated by patch angioplasty (3) or thrombectomy (1). None suffered a perioperative stroke. The overall 30-day stroke, death, and combined stroke/death rate for the 1439 patients in our series was 1.5% (22), .5% (7), and 1.9% (27), respectively. The combined stroke/death rate for asymptomatic lesions was 1.1% (11/1003) and for symptomatic lesions was 2.5% (11/436). Of the 22 strokes in the entire series (all with normal CA), 15 were non-hemorrhagic strokes ipsilateral to the CEA; 14 were confirmed to have widely patent endarterectomy sites by CT-A (13) or re-exploration and repeat arteriography (1). The occluded site was re-explored and underwent thrombectomy, but no technical problems were identified. The remaining strokes were hemorrhagic (4 reperfusion syndrome and 1 surgical site bleeding) or contralateral to the CEA (2). Conclusion: Although not all patients in this series who underwent intraoperative revision due to abnormal CA might have suffered a stroke, performing this simple and safe study may have halved our overall perioperative stroke rate from 3.2% to 1.5%.

Novel Biomaterial for Artery Patch in Swine Model With High-Fat Diet

ObjectiveWe evaluated swine and bovine pulmonary visceral pleura (PVP) in artery patch-angioplasty in swine model of high-fat diet.BackgroundArterial patch-angioplasty is frequently used for repair or reconstruction of arteries. An autologous patch is often limited by the number and dimension of donor tissue and can result in donor complications. Furthermore, mechanical mismatch is a cause of poor performance of vascular reconstruction. Here, we introduce a readily available patch biomaterial with similar compliance as native arteries.MethodsThe PVP was peeled from swine and bovine lungs by hydro-dissection. The swine and bovine PVPs were crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and then sterilized. The swine PVP (sPVP) patches were implanted in the carotid and femoral arteries of six Yorkshire pigs that were fed a regular diet and euthanized at 2 and 4 months postoperative. The bovine PVP (bPVP) patches were implanted in the carotid artery of six Yucatan pigs that were fed a high-fat diet and euthanized at 4 months postoperative. Patency was evaluated by ultrasound and angiography. Neo-endothelium and media were evaluated by histologic examination.ResultsAll arteries in patch-angioplasties remained patent with no adhesions, inflammation, or aneurysms. Biomarkers of endothelial cells (e.g., Factor VIII and eNOS) were detected in the neo-endothelial cells. We observed endothelial cell–cell junctions in the confluent neo-endothelium in the PVP patches. Neo-media composed of vascular smooth muscle developed similar as native arteries. In the hypercholesterolemic model, we observed the accumulation of cholesterol in both arterial tissues and in the neo-vascular tissues in the PVP patches. Protein expressions of lipid transport and metabolism (e.g., APOE-1, ABCA, and PACK9) were also observed in both arterial and neo-vascular tissues.ConclusionThe PVP patch-angioplasty overcomes the pitfalls of compliance mismatch of synthetic patches and has a non-thrombogenic surface. The proliferation of vascular cells assembled to generate the neo-endothelium and media in the patch-angioplasties to support long-term patency. The neo-vascular tissue in PVP patch-angioplasty also developed similar cellular functions for lipid transport and metabolism compared with native arteries in hypercholesterolemia.

An Observational Study of Bovine Pericardial Patch Angioplasty as a surgical option for Infected Aortic Aneurysms

Background: An infected aortic aneurysm (IAA) is a rare and life-threatening disease. The aim of this study is to elucidate mid-term outcomes of IAA, incorporating patch angioplasty with bovine pericardium. Materials and Methods: Between June 2011 and August 2020, eight patients (one woman, seven men) with infected aneurysms of the thoracic and abdominal aorta were treated surgically. Results: There was no surgical/hospital death. There were two late deaths at follow-up. One patient (patient 6) was re-admitted to the hospital with vomiting blood four months after surgery and died despite treatment. Another patient (patient 5) died at his home 12 months after surgery, and the cause of death was unknown. Six patients remained alive with no evidence of recurrent aneurysm formation due to infection at a mean follow-up of 70.3 (range, 13-110) months. Conclusions: BPPA could be one of the surgical options for IAA, especially in patients with severe adhesion around the aneurysm.