Outcomes After Perioperative Stroke Following Cardiac Surgery

BACKGROUND Perioperative stroke is a devastating complication of cardiac surgery that is currently poorly characterized. Perioperative stroke is a cerebrovascular event that occurs after cardiac surgery, and affects between1-5% of patients. The current literature has identified that patients who experience a stroke after surgery have a higher rate of mortality, length of stay and discharge to a facility, but given the rare nature of this complication less is known about which factors predict these outcomes among those who experience a perioperative stroke.

OBJECTIVES

1. Derive and externally validate risk prediction models for mortality (primary outcome), adverse discharge, and length of stay after perioperative stroke.
2. Describe temporal trends in mortality after perioperative stroke between 2005 and 2020.

METHODS This study is a retrospective analysis of the prospectively-collected American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database between 2004 and 2020. The study cohort will be extracted from the NSQIP database and include all patients who experienced a stroke within 30 days of surgery and who underwent a cardiac surgical procedure.

STUDY POPULATION Patients who underwent any cardiac surgical procedure and who experienced a perioperative stroke in the NSQIP database between 2005 and 2020 will be included.