Surgical treatment of recurrent carotid artery stenosis.

Ninety-two surgical procedures were performed in 82 patients for recurrent carotid artery stenosis. The etiology was recurrent atherosclerosis in 45 cases, myointimal hyperplasia in 20, organized thrombus without a significant underlying plaque in 20, and scarring along the proximal arteriotomy site in seven. The operations included a repeat endarterectomy in 66 cases and reconstruction with an interposition graft in 22.

Arteriovenous fistulas of the brain and the spinal cord.

Arteriovenous (AV) fistulas of cerebral and spinal arteries are characterized angiographically by an immediate AV transition without a capillary bed or "nidus" as occurs in AV malformations (AVM's). The clinical presentation, morphology, radiology, and treatment of 12 patients with cerebral AV fistulas and of 12 patients with spinal AV fistulas are reviewed. In the patients with cerebral lesions, headache and seizure disorders were the most common presentations followed by subarachnoid hemorrhage, cardiac failure, progressive neurological dysfunction, and incidental detection on prenatal ultrasound study.

Referral bias in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of referral bias on survival in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). The characteristics of 49 patients with aneurysmal SAH from a single community were compared with those of 328 patients referred from outside the community, all treated in the same medical care setting. In addition, referral patients who received surgery were compared by differential survival analysis with those still awaiting surgery at Days 1 to 3, Days 4 to 10, and Days 11 to 15.

Carotid endarterectomy in patients with contralateral carotid occlusion.

In this study, we assessed the results of carotid endarterectomy in 357 patients with a carotid stenosis and contralateral carotid occlusion. The overall major neurologic morbidity was 0.6%, and the minor morbidity was 1.