Intraoperative assessment of carotid endarterectomy by electromagnetic blood flow measurements.

Intraoperative electromagnetic flow meter measurements were made after 143 carotid endarterectomies. Six (4.2 per cent) had low or no internal carotid artery blood flow, and four of these had a clear technical cause. After rearteriotomy, five had restoration of blood flow to the normal range. These data support the hypothesis that there is a small but significant instance of technical causes of immediate carotid endarterectomy failure which may not be detectable by observation and palpation. Postendarterectomy intraoperative internal carotid artery blood flow measurement is an acceptable method of detecting hemodynamically significant technical defects.