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Minerva Medicolegale 2002 December;122(4): 197-208

Copyright © 2002 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Surgery of carotid dolicoarteriopathies: medicolegal problems

Santovito D., Raso A. M.

Tortuosity, coiling and kinking are dolicoarteriopathies, anomalies of the extracranial carotid artery course. They can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. In the first case scientific literature suggests surgical therapy, in the second there is an unambiguous solution, so that opinions about surgical treatment are extremely distant and antithetical. In the evaluation of professional liability of the vascular surgeon the possible source of error can be scientific doubt, especially in the managment of asymptomatic patients, but the vascular surgeon must be diligent in the treatment of this kind of pathology, adopting every diagnostic tecnique to study the general conditions of the patients.