Carotid endarterectomy in Puerto Rico.

The experience of the authors performing carotid endarterectomy in Puerto Rico is reported. The study was stimulated by the recently published results of the Carotid Endarterectomy Cooperative Trial groups in North America and Europe. This series consists of 61 carotid endarterectomies performed on 53 patients. The majority of the patients suffered from hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and ischemic heart disease. Most of the patients presented with Transient Ischemic Attacks (64%) or Reversible Ischemic Neurologic Deficits (19%). One patient died of a presumptive myocardial infarction and one patient had a post-operative worsening of his neurologic condition. The permanent morbidity and mortality rate was 3.2%.