[Carotid stenting versus endarterectomy].

Carotid artery stenting (CAS) has emerged as an alternative to carotid endarterectomy (CEA) for stroke prevention in patients with carotid atherosclerotic disease. Recently, the results of five multicenter, randomized trials comparing CEA and CAS have been reported. The first trial in high-risk patients confirmed that CAS is not inferior to CEA, following trials in symptomatic average-risk patients which demonstrated a slight superiority of CEA over CAS. Subsequently, the latest large-scale trial in symptomatic and asymptomatic conventional-risk patients demonstrated similar results between CAS and CEA. However, the interpretation of the results of those trials remains controversial. Postapproval study of CAS in Japan has demonstrated acceptable results.