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.
Keywords: Carotid artery stenosis; Carotid disease; Decision aid; Patient preferences; Shared decision-making.
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