Select Topics on Cerebrovascular Disease, An Issue of Neurosurgery Clinics

Worldwide, stroke is second only to coronary artery disease as a cause of death and is the leading cause of disability in the United States. Through multidisciplinary collaborative efforts, evidence-based treatment options, and standards of care currently available, a greater understanding of stroke has been achieved. The nature of clinical medicine calls for a greater understanding of contemporary medical, surgical, and endovascular neurology/neurosurgery to better meet the needs of individual stroke patients. This issue of Neurosurgery Clinics seeks to offer further insight into applied clinical information relative to frequently encountered clinical neurovascular challenges including timing of carotid endarterectomy post-stroke, current status and appropriateness of carotid endarterectomy or as an alternative carotid angioplasty with or without stent placement for ischemic stroke prevention, the role of intracranial vessel stenting, the role and potential indications for decompressive hemicraniectomy and durotomy for massive hemispheric strokes associated with malignant middle cerebral artery territory infarctions, the potential indications for extracranial/intracranial bypass surgery, recent advances and future directions for acute care of intracerebral hemorrhage, clinical utility of clipping or coiling of intracranial aneurysms, and perioperative uses of transcranial perfusion monitoring.