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Safety of carotid artery stenting for elderly patients with cervical carotid artery stenosis

Background Several recent randomized controlled trials have reported that perioperative complications of carotid artery stenting increase with age, and Japan has the highest proportion of elderly in the world. We retrospectively compared clinical factors, treatment outcomes, and adverse events between younger and elderly carotid artery stenting patients at a single institution in Japan to assess carotid artery stenting safety for the aged population. Methods A total of 150 consecutive patients treated with carotid artery stenting using the dual protection (simultaneous flow reversal and distal filter) and blood aspiration method were enrolled. Patients were classified into an elderly (O) group ≥75 years (54/150, 36.0%) and a younger (Y) group <75 years (96/150, 64%) for comparison of demographics, clinical background, incidence of captured debris during the procedure, outcome, minor stroke, major adverse events (major stroke, myocardial infarction, or death) within 30 days, hyperintense spots on diffusion-weighted images after carotid artery stenting, and postoperative hospitalization days. Results The carotid artery stenting procedure was successful in all cases. No major adverse events occurred within 30 days in the Y group, and only one occurred in the O group (P = 0.348). Visible debris was captured in a significantly greater proportion of O group patients than in Y group patients (33/54 (63.5%) vs. 40/96 (42.1%), P = 0.016), but there was no significant difference in the frequency of hyperintense spots on diffusion-weighted images between Y and O groups (23/96 (24.0%) vs. 16/52 (30.8%), P = 0.435). Conclusions Carotid artery stenting using dual protection and blood aspiration is equally safe for younger and elderly patients.