Endovascular Treatment of Extracranial Atherosclerotic Disease

Endovascular treatment of neurovascular occlusive disease is among the most exciting and rapidly developing therapeutic arenas. It involves the percutaneous use of balloon dilatation (angioplasty, PTA) catheters and/or stents to recanalize stenotic vessels. This method is appealing because it is less invasive than open surgery (e.g., carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or extracranial–intracranial bypass) and can potentially treat lesions that would otherwise be surgically untreatable.