How to Repair Non-Atheromatous Carotid Lesion?

Non-atheromatous surgical lesions are estimated to represent at most 10% of all carotid procedures, most of which involve atheromatous lesions. Isolated tortuosity of the carotid vessels is sometimes treated surgically. The pathologies most frequently studied are extra-cranial carotid aneurysms, dissections, and fibromuscular dysplasia. Behçet’s disease only rarely affects the carotid trunk, but in view of its prevalence in our country a short section will be devoted to it. A series of 32 patients treated for non-atheromatous carotid lesions is presented here. All these cases were treated using conventional surgical techniques. A review of the literature shows that endovascular treatment is now replacing conventional surgery for most indications except those involving tumours of the carotid body.