[GeCAS registry. Sense and purpose of a carotid percutaneous transluminal angioplasty register in the era of obligatory quality assurance].

Clinical registries have become increasingly more important tools for scientists as well as for medical admission boards worldwide during recent years due to the ability to investigate the safety and efficacy of a therapeutic method in the general population under real world conditions. The clinical benefit of current registry data seems to be particularly high in a treatment method, such as carotid artery stenting (CAS) where safety and efficacy, especially in daily clinical practice, could not be totally clarified by several randomized clinical trials (RCT). For this reason the new multidisciplinary, multicenter and prospective German Carotid Artery Registry (GeCAS) was founded in January 2011 for continuing quality control in CAS in clinical practice in Germany. The GeCAS registry is a fusion of two large German CAS registries, the ALKK-CAS registry and the PROCAS registry, which were conducted by cardiologists, angiologists and radiologists and operated from 1996 until December 2010. However, a general duty of documentation (BQS) of every CAS procedure exists throughout Germany since January 2012. In contrast to optional documentation of CAS within the GeCAS registry, the nationwide and obligatory documentation is strictly focused on the main issues, such as indications and between hospital comparisons of outcome of patients. In the GeCAS registry data collection is generally more extensive and also includes a 30-day and 10-year follow-up. Compared to the BQS institute, benchmarking reports of GeCAS are more detailed and are made available to every participating hospital on a biannual basis. This generates an image of the current reality of CAS in Germany in addition to the nationwide obligatory documentation. Furthermore, data of the GeCAS registry is the basis for research work (e.g. publications and presentations), for generating new hypotheses and for technical development in CAS in Germany. Consequently, the existence of a multicenter and multidisciplinary CAS registry, such as the GeCAS registry, is considered necessary and medically useful.