Controlled trial of aspirin in cerebral ischemia. Part II: surgical group.

Patients (125) who had carotid transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) and one or more accessible carotid lesions visualized angiographically had reconstructive operations of the carotid artery and were then randomly assigned to aspirin or placebo treatment. The were followed to determine the incidence of subsecquent TIAs, death, cerebral infarction, or retinal infarction. Life table analysis (for 24 months follow up) that eliminated deaths which were not stroke-related revealed a significant difference in favor of aspirin. Because of the small number of patients and the short period of follow up, these results should be interpreted only as consistent with those reported in the initial publication but not conclusive of an aspirin effect in preventing cerebral infarction.