ABSTRACT
The reported operative risks of stroke due to CEA are very dependent on the specialty of the authors reporting them. For example, in a review of studies published prior to 1995 (11,17) the operative risk of stroke and death was 7.7% (5.0-10.0) in studies that involved neurologists vs. 2.3% (1.8-2.7) in studies in which single surgeons reported their own data (Fig. 2) (17). The importance of involvement of a neurologist or stroke physician was highlighted again in the more recent review, in which the pooled operative risk of stroke and death reported in studies published by surgeons only was 4.2% (2.9-5.5, 34 studies) whereas that reported in studies that involved neurologists was 6.5% (4.3-8.7, 11 studies) (16).
