Benefit of carotid endarterectomy after recent ipsilateral nondisabling stroke or TIA in the NASCET trial

The NASCET included 659 patients with a recent TIA or nondisabling stroke and a 70 to 99 percent carotid stenosis who were randomly assigned to carotid endarterectomy or medical therapy. After a two-year follow-up, the cumulative risk of any ipsilateral stroke was significantly lower in the endarterectomy group compared with the medical treatment group (9 versus 26 percent). The Kaplan-Meier survival curve shows the probability of event-free survival after randomization at six-month intervals.