Introduction. Open surgical carotid artery revascularization remains the gold standard for the treatment of carotid atherosclerotic disease. The aim of this study was to analyze atherosclerotic risk factors in patients undergoing open surgical carotid revascularization and to evaluate intraprocedural factors associated with periprocedural complications. Material and Methods. This retrospective study included 125 patients treated at the University Clinical Center of Vojvodina between 2023 and 2024. Data were collected from medical records at the Clinic for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. Results. Patients were categorized as asymptomatic (n = 89) and symptomatic (n = 36). The study population consisted of 63% men and 37% women. An incomplete Circle of Willis was observed in 24% of patients (16% in the asymptomatic group and 44% in the symptomatic group), demonstrating a significant association with disease stage (p = 0.001). Unstable plaques were detected in 15% of asymptomatic and 36.1% of symptomatic patients (p = 0.023). An incomplete Circle of Willis was significantly associated with the occurrence of hyperperfusion syndrome (p = 0.012) and intraoperative hypertension (p < 0.001). Conclusion. Age, cardiac comorbidities, plaque morphology, and completeness of the Circle of Willis are associated with the clinical stage of extracranial cerebrovascular disease. Intraoperatively, hemodynamic instability, carotid plaque length, clamp duration, and total procedure time were associated with an increased risk of procedural complications.
Budinski et al. (Thu,) studied this question.