Stroke is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world today.
It is frequently a terminal event. Survivors of stroke are often severely disabled, and the cost in terms of human suffering is immense. While many of these pathologies are difficult to address, one subset of strokes is potentially highly amenable to surgical intervention. These are the strokes resulting from atheromatous disease of the carotid arteries. With the prevalence of fat-rich diets and contributory risk factors such as smoking, carotid atherosclerosis is common in the Western world.