Carotid endarterectomy -: A neurotherapeutic advance

Egaz Moniz, the pioneer of angiography, in the 1920s identified carotid artery lesions in patients who had experienced a stroke. In the early 1940s, Hultquist published early pathological observations. It remained for C. Miller Fisher's meticulous observations in the 1950s to focus attention on the importance of the extracranial portion of the carotid arteries as a prominent cause of ischemic stroke. Quickly the concept evolved of transient ischemic attacks as forerunners of ischemic infarction. Because surgeons had learned to repair arteries in the battlefields of World War II, it was predictable that pioneers would attempt to remove offending carotid arterial lesions. First to publish was the English team of Eastcott et al. An Argentinean and Americans missed the accolades of primacy by delaying publication.