PMID: 11911628Mar 26, 2002Paper

A review of risk factors for adverse neurologic outcome after cardiac surgery

The Journal of Extra-corporeal Technology
N A Nussmeier

Abstract

Although the incidence of overt sequelae has traditionally been higher in patients undergoing isolated intracardiac procedures such as valve replacement or repair, recent studies show that the incidence of stroke for intracardiac procedures now approximates that for isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), in the range of 1 to 4%. In both intracardiac and extracardiac surgery, macroemboli (>200 microm in diameter) and microemboli (<40 microm in diameter) seem to be responsible for most neurologic complications. The risk of overt stroke is clearly increased in patients who undergo more complicated, combined procedures such as CABG plus valve replacement or CABG plus carotid endarterectomy. For isolated CABG, preoperative risk factors include advanced patient age, proximal aortic atherosclerosis, hypertension, previous stroke or transient ischemic attack, diabetes, and female gender. One area of controversy and current research concerns whether hypothermia is better than normothermia during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Another debatable issue is whether CPB itself results in neurologic damage, owing to nonpulsatile perfusion, complement activation and the "inflammatory response," or a greater propensity for platelet acti...Continue Reading

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Acute Stroke

A stroke occurs when blood supply to the brain is interrupted depriving the brain of oxygen and nutrients. This feed focuses cerebrovascular accidents including ischemic and paralytic stroke.