Does contralateral internal carotid artery occlusion increase the risk of carotid endarterectomy?

The results of every carotid endarterectomy performed contralateral to an internal carotid artery occlusion (n = 36) (group I) were compared with those performed contralateral to a patent internal carotid artery (n = 169) (group II) over the last 10 years. The patients in each group were evenly matched with respect to male gender (66% vs 69%); mean age (66.7 vs 65.9 years); and incidence of hypertension (55.6% vs 53.2%), diabetes (16.7% vs 20.1%), and hyperlipidemia (8.3% vs 11.8%). Patients in group I had a higher incidence of previous myocardial infarction (25% vs 11.8%, p less than 0.05) and exertional angina (55.6% vs 29.6%, p less than 0.01). Indications for carotid endarterectomy were equivalent, including stroke (19.4% vs 21.9%), transient ischemic attacks (36.1% vs 35.5%), amaurosis fugax (16.7% vs 11.8%), nonhemispheric symptoms (5.6% vs 8.3%), and asymptomatic stenoses (22.2% vs 22.5%), respectively. Perioperative strokes occurred in one (2.8%) patient in group I and seven (4.1%) patients in group II (NS). Among the patients in group II the incidence of perioperative stroke did not correlate directly with the degree of contralateral ICA stenosis: greater than 90% (4%); 70% to 90% (6.7%); 50% to 70% (8.7%); and less than 50% (2.8%). The operative mortality rate was 0% among patients in group I and 1.2% among patients in group II (NS). Cardiac complications occurred in two (5.6%) patients in group I and nine (5.3%) patients in group II (NS).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)