External carotid artery shunting during carotid endarterectomy: an alternative for cerebral protection?

Objectives: to assess the application of external carotid artery (ECA) shunting in cerebral protection during carotid endarterectomy (CEA).

Design: prospective study.

Materials And Methods: the study comprised 137 consecutive patients who underwent CEA under locoregional anaesthesia. Transcranial Doppler was used to monitor the mean velocity of the middle cerebral artery (mv-MCA): (1) before carotid clamping; (2) after clamping both the common and external carotid arteries; (3) after clamping the internal carotid artery alone ("ECA test"). The decision to shunt was based on the occurrence of neurological deficit during carotid clamping. If the ECA test revealed mv-MCA approaching the pre-clamping values ECA shunting was used, whereas the remaining patients in need of a shunt had a standard internal carotid artery (ICA) shunt.

Results: shunting was necessary in 12/137 cases (9%). The ECA test indicated that in four cases - 3% of the whole series or 33% of the shunted cases. In these four patients ECA shunting reversed the neurological deficit, and CEA was successfully performed without any complications.

Conclusions: ECA shunting could be considered as an alternative to standard ICA shunting. Suitable cases can be identified on the basis of the ECA test.