SummaryBackgroundStents are an alternative treatment to carotid endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis, but previous trials have not established equivalent safety and efficacy. We compared the safety of carotid artery stenting with that of carotid endarterectomy.MethodsThe International Carotid Stenting Study (ICSS) is a multicentre, international, randomised controlled trial with blinded adjudication of outcomes. Patients with recently symptomatic carotid artery stenosis were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive carotid artery stenting or carotid endarterectomy. Randomisation was by telephone call or fax to a central computerised service and was stratified by centre with minimisation for sex, age, contralateral occlusion, and side of the randomised artery. Patients and investigators were not masked to treatment assignment. Patients were followed up by independent clinicians not directly involved in delivering the randomised treatment. The primary outcome measure of the trial is the 3-year rate of fatal or disabling stroke in any territory, which has not been analysed yet. The main outcome measure for the interim safety analysis was the 120-day rate of stroke, death, or procedural myocardial infarction. Analysis was by intention to treat (ITT). This study is registered, number ISRCTN25337470.FindingsThe trial enrolled 1713 patients (stenting group, n=855; endarterectomy group, n=858). Two patients in the stenting group and one in the endarterectomy group withdrew immediately after randomisation, and were not included in the ITT analysis. Between randomisation and 120 days, there were 34 (Kaplan-Meier estimate 4·0%) events of disabling stroke or death in the stenting group compared with 27 (3·2%) events in the endarterectomy group (hazard ratio [HR] 1·28, 95% CI 0·77–2·11). The incidence of stroke, death, or procedural myocardial infarction was 8·5% in the stenting group compared with 5·2% in the endarterectomy group (72 vs 44 events; HR 1·69, 1·16–2·45, p=0·006). Risks of any stroke (65 vs 35 events; HR 1·92, 1·27–2·89) and all-cause death (19 vs seven events; HR 2·76, 1·16–6·56) were higher in the stenting group than in the endarterectomy group. Three procedural myocardial infarctions were recorded in the stenting group, all of which were fatal, compared with four, all non-fatal, in the endarterectomy group. There was one event of cranial nerve palsy in the stenting group compared with 45 in the endarterectomy group. There were also fewer haematomas of any severity in the stenting group than in the endarterectomy group (31 vs 50 events; p=0·0197).InterpretationCompletion of long-term follow-up is needed to establish the efficacy of carotid artery stenting compared with endarterectomy. In the meantime, carotid endarterectomy should remain the treatment of choice for patients suitable for surgery.FundingMedical Research Council, the Stroke Association, Sanofi-Synthélabo, European Union.

We present a 55-year-old lady who swallowed a 3 cm pointed metal foreign body whilst eating a sardine salad. The foreign body migrated from the hypopharynx through the parapharyngeal space and traversed the common carotid artery over a period of 12 days. The foreign body was removed by exploration of the neck.

Approximately 12 per cent of limbs undergoing intra-arterial thrombolysis (IAT) develop distal embolism or extension of thrombus during the procedure. These are usually of little clinical consequence and can be treated by increasing the rate of administration of the lytic agent. However, in some patients the clinical condition of the limb deteriorates rapidly. In an attempt to define the incidence of acute limb deterioration during IAT, information was collected from five centres in the UK with experience of the technique. A total of 866 treatments were recorded, with 20 limbs (2.3 per cent) undergoing acute deterioration. This complication was more common during the treatment of thrombosed popliteal aneurysm than during that of emboli or thrombosed atheromatous arteries or grafts (P < 0.001). The amputation rate associated with the complication was high, and operative intervention provided better results than continuation of lysis.

Possible criteria for audit of urinary tract infection care 1 The accuracy of the diagnosis-that is, was an appropriately taken midstream urine specimen used to make the diagnosis, and was the result consistent with the diagnosis? 2 Was the infection appropriately investigated and followed up? 3 Was a suitable antibiotic used?Structure-We may want to look at how good our children's facilities are. The best judges of that are the children and their parents, so it is best to find out how we are doing from a patient satisfaction survey. If worded properly, such a survey could use the parents' comments to create ideas to change the existing arrangements to be more "child friendly." Process-We could choose an important topic such as urinary tract infection in childhood. The sort of criteria of concern might be those shown opposite.All these criteria need to be fully discussed, justified by good published work, and then have standards applied to them. For example, the standard for taking a midstream urine specimen before treating a child with a suspected urinary tract infection would probably be agreed by most reasonable general practitioners to be 1 00%.Outcome-This is the most difficult subject to assess in the small populations that we deal with in general practice. However, it is possible to find a few examples. One could be to look at emergency admissions of children with asthma as a criterion of control outcome. Having sampled a group, the number of emergency admissions in a year can be measured. Having created whatever change was in mind for the children's care, the audit can be run again to see if emergency admissions have reduced.Audit is particularly useful in primary care for assessing the effectiveness of clinics. For example, auditing various aspects of asthma care before and after instituting an asthma clinic will help ascertain whether or not the clinic is worthwhile.L Peter is a general practitioner, Harrow, Middlesex.

The results of local intra-arterial thrombolysis in 98 patients treated with streptokinase and 69 patients treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) have been compared. The two groups of patients were well matched and their treatment protocols were identical except with regard to the thrombolytic agent used. Strict criteria for defining successful thrombolysis were used. Successful lysis was achieved in 40 of 98 patients (41 per cent) receiving streptokinase and 40 of 69 patients (58 per cent) receiving rtPA (P less than 0.05). The time to lysis was significantly shorter with rtPA, median time 22 h, than with streptokinase, median time 40 h (P less than 0.002). There was no difference in the incidence of haemorrhagic complications. These results suggest that rtPA is superior to streptokinase for local intra-arterial thrombolysis.