Health-related quality of life in ischaemic stroke survivors after carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS): confounder-controlled analysis

Introduction
Atherosclerotic carotid artery stenosis (CS)-related strokes are a significant overall stroke burden contributor.

Aim
To evaluate the effect of surgical (carotid endarterectomy – CEA) vs. percutaneous (neuroprotected carotid artery stenting – CAS) carotid revascularization on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in stroke survivors: analysis controlled for major HRQoL determinants beyond strokes.

Material and methods
Our database of 856 carotid revascularization procedures (48.7% symptomatic CS) performed over 3 years showed 42 pairs (CEA-CAS) of right hemispheric stroke patients matched for age, sex, marital and educational status, hypertension, heart failure and diabetes, who underwent uneventful carotid revascularization, experienced no major adverse clinical events, and completed the Short Form Outcome Study (SF-36) questionnaire within 7 days before, 14 days after, 6 months after, and 12 months after carotid revascularization.

Results
Baseline HRQoL was low and similar in both groups (30.8 ±4.6% vs. 29.1 ±3.9%, p = 0.68; data given for CEA vs. CAS). National Institute of Health Stroke Scale chronic severity was 5.4 ±2.8 vs. 5.9 ±3.1 (p = 0.44). Revascularization was associated with a major HRQoL improvement, that was significantly greater in CAS (60.4 ±9.2% vs. 71.5 ±6.2%, p < 0.001). At 6 months the CEA-CAS difference was narrower (70.7 ±9.7% vs. 74.6 ±5.9%, p = 0.026), becoming statistically insignificant at 12 months (72.6 ±6.7% vs. 75.1 ±5.1%, p = 0.062). The early CEA-CAS difference was driven by less bodily pain and better physical functioning/role-physical plus better role-emotional and higher general well-being scores in CAS (p < 0.05).

Conclusions
Carotid revascularization has a major positive impact on stroke survivor patient-reported HRQoL. The improvement is initially greater in CAS, with the remaining difference small at 12 months and statistically insignificant.