There was no enough evidence to support the view that endovascular treatment could alternate the endarterectomy to be a standard treatment of carotid stenosis. A recent Cochrane systematic review found no difference in major outcomes between endovascular treatment and surgery. The randomised trials provided data to show that the main advantage of endovascular treatment for carotid artery stenosis was the avoidance of minor complications such as cranial nerve palsy and wound haematoma of surgery. Longer term follow also showed no difference in the rate of stroke during follow-up, but the confidence intervals were very wide allowing the possibility of a substantial difference in risk and benefits of the two treatments. There was no difference in avoidance of stroke between carotid stenting using protection devices and surgery, and the protection devices could cause additional complications.

Citation： Martin M. Brown. Stenting versus Surgery - the Neurologist Point of View. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2005, 05(2): 97-98. doi: Copy