Carotid percutaneous angioplasty.

Clinical benefit from treatment of symptomatic severe carotid stenoses has been demonstrated recently. The safety profile of endarterectomy, however, justifies the development of alternative techniques as percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), at least in mild to moderate stenoses. Early results and follow-up data from our series of 44 carotid stenoses treated by PTA are reviewed in this paper, in comparison with other reports from literature. PTA may be beneficial as a therapy of symptomatic internal carotid stenoses, provided its cost/effectiveness has been evaluated by a valid method.