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).