Decision Aids for Patients with Carotid Stenosis.

BACKGROUND:Shared decision-making tools have been underused by clinicians in real-world practice. Changes to the National Coverage Determination by Medicare for carotid stenting greatly expand the coverage for patients, but simultaneously require a shared decision-making interaction that involves the use of a validated tool. Accordingly, our objective was to evaluate the currently available decision aids for carotid stenosis.METHODS:We conducted a review of the literature for published work on decision aids for the treatment of carotid disease.RESULTS:Four publications met inclusion criteria. We found the format of the decision aid impacted patient comprehension and decision making, although patient characteristics also played a role in the therapeutic decisions made. Notably, none of the available decision aids included the widely adopted transcarotid artery revascularization as an option.CONCLUSIONS:Further work is needed in the development of a widespread validated decision aid instrument for patients with carotid stenosis.