Vascular disease risk factor management 4 years after carotid endarterectomy: are opportunities missed?

Abstract

Vascular risk factor management following CEA is suboptimal, inviting the implementation and evaluation of strategies to improve outcomes.

Effective discharge policy: are we getting there?

“…Specifically, less than half of the GPs recalled receiving discharge summaries from hospitals within 2 weeks of patient discharge. Yet patients discharged from acute care after CEA are at risk of adverse vascular events and require greater vigilance with respect to their vascular risk factor management (Middleton et al 2003). The reason for our finding that GPs were more likely to have received discharge summaries for those patients whose CEA was performed at a public rather than at a private hospital is unclear.…”

Post‐operative risk factor control following internal carotid artery intervention

“…The generalizability of the results in this study to contexts external to Southern Health should be done with caution. The characteristics of participants in this study were not dissimilar to the general carotid surgical patient population 13–15 that provides some degree of external validation to the results. However, there are other potential dimensions that impact on post‐operative risk factor control which were not investigated in this study and which may differ significantly between location and context, such as the skills and practices of GPs involved in post‐operative risk factor control, which therefore may limit external generalizability.…”

“…In a study by Middleton et al . concerning secondary prevention among CEA patients, 13% of patients stated that their blood pressure was high (inadequately controlled), while the objective clinical measurements indicated that 37% of patients was maintaining hypertensive readings, with inadequate blood pressure control 13 …”

Nursing intervention after carotid endarterectomy: a randomized trial of Co‐ordinated Care Post‐Discharge (CCPD)

“…2000). Patient education about stroke risk factors, combined systematically with CEA, holds unrealised potential to improve patient outcomes (Middleton et al. 2003).…”