Safety and Efficacy Study for Reverse Flow Used During Carotid Artery Stenting Procedure

Cerebral embolization during carotid artery stenting (CAS) can often precipitate severe adverse neurological effects. Most major clinical studies of CAS have used distal filters for cerebral protection and have compared the neurologic complication rates with those of carotid endarterectomy (CEA). Many currently available embolic protection devices, however, have limited efficacy in capturing microembolic debris that is liberated during stenting, pre-dilatation and post-dilatation. Distal protection systems are furthermore limited by the need to cross the lesion prior to deployment. Some studies have shown a relatively high incidence of cerebral infarction even when distal protection devices are employed. Cerebral protection with carotid flow reversal is a method that was developed as an alternative to the use of distal protection devices. While novel in its approach, this method too has its limitations. Another technique developed employs carotid flow reversal prior to traversing the stenosis and can be accomplished by directly accessing the carotid anatomy without the use of the transfemoral approach. Major benefits to this method include a simpler route to the target lesion and the ability to perform the procedure on patients with severe carotid tortuosity and difficult aortic arch anatomy.