[Time lost between stroke and carotid endarterectomy].

Objective: To establish whether measures taken to shorten the interval of time between a stroke and carotid endarterectomy (CEA) procedure at two Dutch hospitals had any effect.

Design: Retrospective and descriptive.

Method: Data were gathered on all patients with symptomatic narrowing of the carotid artery from a non-academic teaching hospital (Amphia Ziekenhuis in Breda) as well as from a university clinic dedicated to carotid abnormalities (University Medical Center Utrecht, UMCU).