Comment on the article "Symptomatic carotid near-occlusion causes a high risk of recurrent ipsilateral ischemic stroke" by Gu et al.

We read with great interest the recent article “Symptomatic carotid near-occlusion causes a high risk of recurrent ipsilateral ischemic stroke” by Gu et al. [1]. The authors present a single-centre retrospective study in which they describe a preoperative or 90-day ipsilateral ischemic stroke risk that reaches 22% in patients with carotid near-occlusion (CNO) without full collapse and 30% for CNO with full collapse. The risk for CNO exceeds even that observed for “conventional” ≥ 50% carotid stenosis. These results are striking and, if confirmed, could lead to a significant change in the management of patients with symptomatic carotid near-occlusion [2]