Background:
Carotid revascularization procedure, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid stent placement (CAS), are some of the most common procedures performed in United States and expected to change due to wider adoption of CAS. We performed this study to determine the changes in utilization of CEA and CAS in United States using nationally representative data.
Methods:
We used the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) from 2005 to 2014 to assess the changes in utilization of CEA and CAS over last 10 years in patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis. NIS is the largest all payer dataset that includes diagnoses, admissions and discharge, demographics, and outcomes data of patients admitted to short stay non-Federal hospitals in the United States. We analyzed patterns of changes in utilization in various subsets of patients with carotid artery stenosis.
Results:
A total of 1,186,182 patients underwent carotid revascularization procedures during study period; 1,032,148 (87.1%) and 154,035 (12.9%) were CEA and CAS, respectively. The overall carotid revascularization procedures decreased over last 10 years (11.1% in 2005 to 8.4%in 2014, trend test p <.0001). Carotid revascularization in symptomatic patients increased (7.64% in 2005 to 11.01% in 2014, trend test p <.0001) while it decreased in asymptomatic patients (92.36% in 2006 to 88.99% in 2014, trend test p <.0001). There was an overall decrease in CEA (11.6% in 2005 to 8.3% in 2014, trend test <.0001) while in CAS remained unchanged (8.1% in 2005 to 8.9% in 2014, p=NS). There was an increase in carotid revascularization in teaching hospitals (40.9% in 2005 to 67.1% in 2014, trend test p <.0001) while decrease in non-teaching hospitals (50.9% in 2006 to 27.1% in 2014, trend test p <.0001). There was a decrease in carotid revascularization procedures in patients aged ≥80 years (19.8% in 2005 to 18.7% in 2014, trend test p <.0001) and CEA (19.6% in 2006 to 18.8% in 2014, trend test P<.0001) and CAS (21.2% in 2006 to 18.6% in 2014, trend test p=<.0001).
Conclusion:
Although CAS is increasing in a disproportionate manner within patient subgroups in United States, overall carotid revascularization procedures have decreased for unclear reasons.