Heart Bypass and Stroke Surgery a Risk

Patients who undergo combined heart bypass surgery and carotid endarterectomy significantly increase their chances of death or stroke, says U.S. study.

The study involved the review of hospital discharge data from 657,877 patients who had been admitted to U.S. hospitals for carotid endarterectomy or coronary bypass artery surgery from 1993 to 2002, according to study author Dr. Richard M. Dubinsky of the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

The benefit of this combined procedure is controversial, said Dubinsky. Given this significant increase in postoperative stroke and death, a randomized clinical trial of the combined surgery is needed to determine the benefit, if any, compared to performing the operations in separate hospitalizations.

Dubinsky says the increase in death or stroke could be due to the degree of narrowing of carotid arteries, the patient’s history of previous stroke or other factors that could not be identified from the data. The findings are published in Neurology.