Early time carotid artery stent shortening: A case report

Abstract

The utilization of carotid artery stenting (CAS) as a less invasive and alternative treatment to carotid endarterectomy (CEA) has progressively increased. However, with the increasing incidence of CAS, several studies have investigated the complication rates of CAS compared to CEA. Recent findings suggest that CAS resulted in better patient prognosis than CEA, following advances in techniques and instrumentation. Despite the decreased procedural risk associated with CAS, one of the most common complications is thromboembolic events. Hyper-perfusion injury and in-stent stenosis due to fibro-proliferation are other complications. However, stent shortening rarely occurs. We present two cases of the downward shortening of a stent after a CAS procedure, which were detected via computed tomography angiography (CTA) the day after stenting, suggesting the possible role of the “watermelon seeding effect.”

Keywords

• Carotid stenting
• Stent shortening
• Watermelon seeding
• Stent movement
• Carotid artery stenosis