TUESDAY, May 19, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- The risk of death or stroke after carotid artery stenting varies widely among U.S. hospitals, with the odds four times higher at some medical centers, new research suggests. The study appears in the May issue of JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions.
Researchers looked at medical records regarding 19,381 of these procedures from 188 hospitals between 2005 and 2013.
Overall, the researchers found that an average of 2.4 percent of patients died or suffered a stroke after the procedure, with rates ranging from zero to nearly 19 percent. After accounting for various factors such as age or prior stroke, the rate of stroke or death ranged from 1.2 to 4.7 percent. The number of stent procedures performed at a hospital didn't seem to have an effect on subsequent stroke or mortality rates.
"Our findings are important because they demonstrate that carotid stenting is being performed with good results across a large number of hospitals in the United States," the authors write. "However, our analyses also suggest that some hospitals are achieving better outcomes than others, and it will be important to identify the reasons for this so that all centers offering this therapy can achieve exceptional outcomes."
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