Delayed carotid surgery: what are the causes in the north west of England?

Introduction: Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) should be performed within two weeks of symptoms for patients with carotid stenosis >50%. Whether these standards are being achieved and causes of delay between symptoms and CEA were investigated.
Design: An analysis of prospectively collected multi-centre data.
Materials: Consecutive data for patients undergoing CEA between January-2006 and September-2010 were collected. Asymptomatic patients and those with no details on the timing of cerebral symptoms were excluded.
Methods: 'Delay' from symptom to CEA was defined as more than two weeks and 'prolonged-delay' more than eight weeks. Univariable and multivariable analyses were used to identify factors associated with these delays.
Results: Of 2147 patients with symptoms of cerebral ischaemia, 1522(70.9%) experienced 'delay' and 920(42.9%) experienced 'prolonged delay'. Patients with ischaemic heart disease were more likely to experience 'delay' (OR = 1.56; 95% CI 1.11-2.19, p = 0.011), whereas patients with stroke (OR = 0.77; 95%CI 0.63-0.94, p = 0.011) and those treated at hospitals with a stroke-prevention clinic (OR = 0.57; 95%CI 0.46-0.71, p < 0.001) were less likely to experience 'delay'. Patients treated after the publication of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines were less likely to experience 'prolonged delay' (OR = 0.77; 95%CI 0.65-0.91, p = 0.003) but not 'delay'.
Conclusion: Few patients achieved CEA within two weeks of symptoms. Introducing stroke-prevention clinics with one-stop carotid imaging appears important.
(Copyright © 2012 European Society for Vascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)