Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE-: Stroke is a major adverse event after left ventricular assist device (LVAD) surgery. The purpose of this study was to describe differences in hemispheric distribution of stroke in LVAD patients. METHODS-: We reviewed 317 consecutive patients who underwent LVAD surgery between November 2000 and July 2011. Stroke during LVAD support was analyzed. RESULTS-: In total, 46 strokes occurred at 76.0±96.8 days postoperatively. Among the 46 strokes, 27 events (58.7%) occurred in right hemisphere, 13 events (28.2%) in the left hemisphere, 3 events (8.7%) occurred bilaterally, and 2 events (4.3%) were vertebrobasilar lesions. The right hemispheric stroke was significantly more common in patients with postoperative infection compared with left hemispheric events. CONCLUSIONS-: Stroke after LVAD implantation has a right hemispheric predominance. This finding suggests LVAD-related thrombus in the setting of infection and/or the anatomic configuration of LVAD outflow cannula-ascending aorta anastomosis to be highly associated with stroke after LVAD surgery.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 872-874 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Stroke |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2012 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- acute stroke
- cardiac surgery
- infectious disease