Background: The incidence of postoperative stroke after carotid endarterectomy is an uncommon event, and differences by racial and ethnic subgroups are not described fully in the literature.
Objective: To investigate the impact of race and ethnicity on postoperative stroke risk among patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis undergoing carotid endarterectomy.
Methods: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database was searched for patients between the dates 2008 and 2015 to identify patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy with no history of stroke. Four racial and ethnic subgroups were included: non-Hispanic white, Hispanic white, non-Hispanic back, and non-Hispanic Asian. In addition to a descriptive statistical analysis, univariate and multivariate regression models were created to adjust for cardiovascular and perioperative risk factors and corrected for multiple comparisons.
Results: Among the 53,593 patients identified meeting the inclusion criteria, 788 (1.45%) patients experienced a stroke within 30 days. The non-Hispanic white group compared with the minority subgroups had a lower risk of postoperative stroke (1.43% vs. 1.67%, P = 0.18). The greatest difference was between the non-Hispanic white and Hispanic white groups, but this was not significant on multivariable analysis (odds ratio 1.40, 95% confidence interval 0.97-2.02, P = 0.08) after adjustment for risk stroke factors. The strongest predictors of postoperative stroke were perioperative blood transfusion, dependent functional status, and longer operative time.
Conclusions: There was no difference between the racial and ethnic groups and the proportion of postoperative stroke among patients undergoing revascularization for asymptomatic carotid stenosis.
Keywords: Carotid endarterectomy; Carotid stenosis; Ethnicity; Health disparities; Race; Stroke.
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