Surgical revascularization and outcomes
The average follow-up period until last follow-up or stroke was 4.4 and 7.4 years for the surgical and conservative groups, respectively. In the surgical revascularization group, there were no strokes; one patient experienced a TIA. In the conservative treatment group, three patients experienced one stroke each (3 strokes per 100 patient years or 3% per year). In addition to CTT, two of the three conservative patients who experienced stroke were on aspirin therapy, and all three were on iron chelation therapy. Although the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of stroke-free survival comparing the two groups showed a clear divergence between curves, it did not show a statistically significant difference (p=0.146) (Figure 3).