Percutaneous closure devices do not reduce the risk of major access site complications in patients undergoing elective carotid stent placement

Purpose To examine the risk of femoral access site complications in patients undergoing carotid stent placement who were treated with a closure device compared with patients who were not treated with a closure device. Materials and Methods A national, multihospital patient database, the Premier Perspective database, was used to identify patients hospitalized for carotid stent placement from 2006-2011. To reduce potential selection bias, a propensity score was generated for each patient using relevant clinical variables. Propensity score adjustment via 1:1 matching was performed on patients who did and did not receive a closure device. Primary outcomes were minor femoral access site complications and major complications requiring procedural intervention. Secondary outcomes included in-hospital mortality, stroke, and blood transfusion. Results Among 12,287 patients who underwent carotid stent placement at 217 hospitals, 6,398 (52%) received a closure device on the day of the procedure. After propensity score matching, patients who received a closure device had a lower likelihood of minor access site complications (4.2% vs 5.4%; odds ratio = 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.55-0.93; P =.0071) compared with patients who did not receive a closure device; however, this difference was small and likely not clinically relevant. Both groups had a similar risk of major access site complications (P =.32), in-hospital mortality (P =.0520), and stroke (P =.31). Conclusions Use of a closure device was not associated with a substantially reduced risk of major adverse events after carotid stent placement and was associated with only a small improvement in minor access site complications.