Study: Heart Pump Causes No Mental Damage

Johns Hopkins scientists say they found no evidence of cognitive decline in patients undergoing bypass surgery involving use of a heart-lung machine.

The researchers say they found the use of a cardiopulmonary heart pump during coronary artery bypass grafting, or CABG, surgery does not significantly damage such high-level mental tasks as thinking, reasoning and remembering.

CABG surgery is effective for the relief of angina and reducing the risk of a heart attack, but the procedure has been believed by some patients to cause pump-related damage to one’s cerebral cortex.

To determine if there was a clinical basis for that concern, Dr. Guy McKhann, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led a non-randomized study comparing cognitive abilities of on-pump CABG patients, off-pump CABG patients, non-surgical patients with coronary artery disease and heart- healthy individuals.

The results of the study showed on-pump CABG patients displayed no significant differences in their higher-level mental functions than did the other groups tested.

This outcome should be reassuring to both patients and surgeons engaged in on-pump CABG surgeries, McKhann said.

The study was recently published in the journal Neurology.