[Is there a role for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis screening?]

Screening for asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is highly controversial Many surgeons routinely screen their patients for carotid disease prior to major operations, yet the benefit of such practice was never demonstrated. The treatment of symptomatic patients has not changed much during the last twenty years, since the publication of the North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET). However, in contrast, the Asymptomatic Carotid Atherosclerosis Study (ACAS) and the Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial (ACST) failed to get the same acceptance among the multidisciplinary group treating CAS.The prevalence of asymptomatic 60-99% carotid artery stenosis among the general population is about 1%. Neither ACAS nor ACST showed that stenosis severity was associated with increasing stroke risk. The 'realpolitik' is that mass interventions in asymptomatic patients will probably only ever prevent about 1% of all strokes. This is even truer regarding patients scheduLed for major operation, in which the incidence of stroke is less than 1%. Moreover the current evidence in the literature suggests that the best medicaL treatment (BMT) results in 0.5% strokes per year, better than resuLts which can be offered by surgery. According to the current evidence, it seems that asymptomatic carotid artery screening should be discontinued, since it is a major waste of resources.