Carotid artery stenting in clinical practice results from the Carotid Artery Stenting (CAS)-registry of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausarzte (ALKK).

Background: Carotid artery stenting (CAS) for symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid stenosis seems to be on the doorstep of more widespread use. However, its feasibility and safety in clinical practice at a broad spectrum of hospitals needs to be determined.

Methods: We analyzed data of the prospective multi-centre Carotid Artery Stenting (CAS) Registry of the German Arbeitsgemeinschaft Leitende Kardiologische Krankenhausarzte (ALKK).

Results: From 7/1996 to 5/2004 1888 patients from 28 hospitals were included in the CAS Registry. The median hospital stay from CAS until hospital discharge was 3 days (quartiles: 2-6 days). Median patients age was 70 years (quartiles: 64-76 years) with 72.1% males. CAS for symptomatic stenosis was performed in 55% of cases. Patients treated with CAS suffered from coronary artery disease in 66.5%, had arterial hypertension in 91.7%, hyperlipidemia in 86.3% and 34.2% were diabetics. The intended CAS procedure was completed in 98.1% of cases. A stent was implanted in 97.3% of completed cases. The median intervention time was 43 min (quartiles: 30-60 min). During the hospital stay death rate was 0.3% (5/1888) and the rate of ipsilateral stroke 3.2% (58/1840). A contralateral ischemic event occurred in 1.4% (26/ 1840) of patients. The combined rate of all death or strokes was 3.8% (70/1841). Between 1996 and 2004 there was a steady increase in the use of protection devices during CAS (0% in 1996 and 97.9% in 2004; p for trend <0.0001). There was also an increase in the proportion of patients treated for asymptomatic stenoses (p for trend <0.0001). We observed a decrease of the combined endpoint of death or stroke from 6.3% in 1996 to 1.9% in 2004 (p for trend=0.021).

Conclusion: The multi-centre ALKK CAS Registry data confirm the feasibility and shot-term safety of CAS even in daily clinical practice. There was a rapid penetration of the use of embolic protection devices, an increase in treatment of asymptomatic carotid stenoses and a decrease in acute complication rates from 1996 to 2004.