Carotid endarterectomy versus carotid stenting for asymptomatic carotid stenosis: Evaluating the overlapping meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials

Background: Asymptomatic carotid stenosis is associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke. The management of asymptomatic carotid stenosis ranges from open surgical approaches, minimally invasive endovascular interventions, and medical therapeutics. However, the research synthesis comparing these interventions, as shown by the scattered and overlapping published meta-analysis, has been inconsistent and non-comprehensive. Methods: Using previously-employed methods, we searched for and compared published meta-analyses comparing carotid endarterectomy and carotid stenting. A comprehensive search was conducted for all relevant studies published until November 13th, 2021, using the following databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, OVID, and Google Scholar. Results: Five meta-analysis studies were included in this review. In summary, clinical findings were: carotid endarterectomy reduced the rate of ischemic stroke and stroke-related mortality, but led to a higher rate of intraoperative cranial nerve injury. There was no significant difference between carotid endarterectomy and carotid stenting in ipsilateral stroke and myocardial infarction events. Conclusions: The clinical findings favor the carotid endarterectomy over the carotid stenting in terms of stroke incidence (overall and minor events) and stroke-related mortality rates. However, the carotid stenting was superior to the carotid endarterectomy in the events of cranial nerve injury during the intervention.