Carotid artery stenosis as an independent risk factor for perioperative strokes following mitral valve surgical intervention.

OBJECTIVE:To examine the role of carotid stenosis (CS) and other independent risk factors of perioperative stroke following either mitral valve repair or replacement. METHODS:Using data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database for analysis, all patients who underwent either mitral valve repair or replacement were identified using ICD-9 codes. RESULTS:A total of 79,583 patients who underwent either mitral valve replacement or repair were studied. 3.39% of the total cohort developed perioperative stroke. With a mean age of 62.78±0.23, there was a statistically significant amount of stroke cases in age ranges 65-74 and 75-84 (p<0.05). Risk stratification was done using Van Walraven (VWR) scoring and the cohort had a mean of 2.73±0.06. The following independent predictors were found to be significant: age, female gender, moderate and high VWR risk, both symptomatic and asymptomatic CS, atrial fibrillation, previous h/o smoking, and other cardiac valve procedures performed, and congestive heart failure (CHF). CONCLUSION:CS is a significant risk factor for perioperative strokes following mitral valve surgery. Further prospective clinical studies are needed that look into risk stratification of patients for better patient selection and the question of whether carotid revascularization procedures will be beneficial in reducing stroke rates.