HEALTH TOPICS 
Balloon angioplasty appears to be just as good as surgery to unblock carotid arteries.
Opening a blocked heart artery with a balloon and then propping it open with a wire-mesh stent has become a near-equal partner with bypass surgery for restoring blood flow to the heart. Although coronary angioplasty plus stenting isn't quite as durable as bypass surgery, it is much easier on the body, since it doesn't require opening the chest. Giving up a tiny bit of effectiveness for a much shorter recovery is an excellent trade-off for some people.
The most recent studies suggest the situation is similar in the carotid arteries, which convey oxygen-rich blood to the brain. In that territory, carotid angioplasty plus stenting (CAS) for many people may be the equal of endarterectomy, an operation to clean out a clogged carotid artery.
An often-silent disease
The right and left carotid arteries branch off the aorta soon after it emerges from the heart and run up to the brain along either side of the neck. These vitally important arteries are prone to atherosclerosis, the damaging process that clogs arteries in the heart, kidneys, legs, and elsewhere.
A buildup of plaque in the carotids usually goes unnoticed. Sometimes it is discovered when a doctor hears "bruits" (BROO-ee) through a stethoscope in one or both carotid arteries. These soft, whooshing sounds are caused by turbulence as blood tumbles through a narrowing in a carotid artery. Clogged carotids are sometimes found during ultrasound exams of the neck and head. For most people, though, the first sign of trouble is a transient ischemic attack or a stroke.
Just as a heart attack is the big worry with cholesterol-clogged coronary arteries, brain attack (stroke) is the main hazard of plaque-narrowed carotid arteries. Plaque in a carotid artery can cause a stroke by restricting blood flow to part of the brain, or by breaking loose and completely blocking a smaller vessel in the brain.
Clearing a clogged carotid artery
Endarterectomy removes fatty plaque through an incision in the neck. Angioplasty plus stenting opens the narrowing from the inside with a balloon and leaves behind a stent to hold the artery open. |
Opening a clogged carotid artery
There are two main ways to open a narrowed carotid artery.
Endarterectomy involves physically removing plaque from inside the carotid artery. A surgeon makes an incision in the neck to expose the artery, clamps the artery, then opens it lengthwise in the region of the narrowing. After scraping the fatty plaque out of the artery, the surgeon enlarges the artery with a diamond-shaped patch, stitches the artery together, then closes the skin of the neck.
Carotid angioplasty begins with a small incision into the femoral artery in the groin. A thin tube called a catheter is gently pushed into the artery and maneuvered up through the aorta into the narrowing in the carotid artery. An umbrella-shaped filter is placed beyond the narrowing to catch any dislodged plaque or debris. Once everything is in place, a balloon on the catheter is inflated, mashing the plaque into the artery wall and expanding a stent. The balloon is deflated; the catheter and filter are removed, leaving the stent in place to hold the artery open; and the incision in the groin is closed.
Downside of treatment
The main goal of carotid endarterectomy or angioplasty is to prevent a stroke from happening in the future. Both do this quite well. What makes deciding which procedure to have — or whether to have one at all — difficult is that both endarterectomy and angioplasty sometimes cause a stroke, the very problem they are trying to prevent, or, even worse, death.
Most people — upward of 90% — sail through CAS or carotid endarterectomy without a hitch. Nationally, about five people in 100 have a stroke or die as a result of a procedure to clear a clogged carotid artery. The rate is much lower when the procedure is performed by a doctor who has done it many times.
Choosing a procedure
So, what to do if you have a narrowed carotid artery?
If it isn't too severe (less than 70% narrowed) or causing any symptoms, your best bet is medical therapy. If the narrowing is severe, or if it has already caused a transient ischemic attack or full-blown stroke, opening the carotid artery with surgery or CAS will likely be recommended.
More important than which procedure you choose is the experience of the doctor who will perform it and how well his or her patients fare afterward. Don't be shy about asking for numbers: How many carotid artery procedures do you perform each year? What percentage of your patients have a stroke or die from the procedure? These are tough questions to ask, but they are the most important ones in your decision-making process.
To learn more about conditions that affect the heart, buy the Harvard Special Health report Diseases of the Heart.