Abstract P453: Racial Disparities in Early Use of Transcarotid Artery Revascularization Among High-Risk and Symptomatic Black and White Adults With Carotid Artery Stenosis

Abstract

Introduction: Differential access to new technologies may contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes. We examined the adoption of transcarotid artery revascularization (TCAR) among high-risk Black and white adults undergoing surgery for carotid artery stenosis. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that Black adults would be less likely than white adults to receive TCAR since its introduction to the US market in 2015. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the prospectively collected Vascular Quality Initiative surgical database from 1/2015 to 12/2021, which includes 100% of the TCAR procedures performed during this period. Non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white adults were included if they met Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services high-risk criteria due to anatomy, medical comorbidities, and/or recent symptoms (ipsilateral stroke or transient ischemic attack). We used logistic regression to quantify associations of race with receipt of TCAR (versus other surgical procedure for carotid stenosis) overall and by specific high-risk features. Results: There were 119,128 surgical procedures performed for carotid artery stenosis (14.3% TCAR) (mean age 72 years, 5.3% Black, 38.5% female). Black patients were less likely than white patients to receive TCAR after adjustment for patient and disease characteristics (aOR 0.91, 95% CI 0.83, 0.99). Among patients with only one high-risk feature (e.g., only high-risk anatomy), TCAR use did not vary by race. However, Black patients were less likely to receive TCAR in subgroups with multiple high-risk features ( Figure ). Not all hospitals performed TCAR, and Black patients were less likely to be treated at TCAR-capable hospitals (aOR 0.93, 95% CI 0.88, 0.98). TCAR use did not vary by race at TCAR-capable hospitals ( Figure ). Conclusions: Adoption of TCAR was lower among Black compared to white high-risk patients, for whom TCAR offers the most benefit. Differential access to hospitals with newer technology may explain these disparities.