Loading...
Because stroke is an important cause of morbidity and mortality after cardiac surgery, these researchers retrospectively studied the incidence, subtypes, and distribution of stroke in 4335 patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery. The researchers examined whether significant (≥50%) carotid stenosis (CS) increases the risk for perioperative ipsilateral anterior circulation stroke, and whether concomitant carotid endarterectomy and cardiac surgery reduces stroke risk.
Of 76 patients who had postoperative strokes, almost 76% did not have CS; only 5% of strokes appeared to be directly related to the carotid disease. However, patients with CS had a 4-fold increase in overall stroke incidence compared with the entire cohort (7.5% vs. 1.8%).…