Intermediate-Term Risk of Stroke Following Cardiac Procedures in a Nationally Representative Data Set

J Am Heart Assoc. 2017 Dec 2;6(12):e006900. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.006900.

Abstract

Background: Studies on stroke risk following cardiac procedures addressed only perioperative and long-term risk following limited higher-risk procedures, were poorly generalizable, and often failed to stratify by stroke type. We calculated stroke risk in the intermediate risk period following cardiac procedures compared with common noncardiac surgeries and medical admissions.

Methods and results: The Nationwide Readmissions Database contains readmission data for 49% of US admissions in 2013. We compared age-adjusted stroke readmission rates up to 90 days postdischarge. We used Cox regression to calculate hazard ratios, up to 1 year, of stroke risk comparing transcatheter aortic valve replacement versus surgical aortic valve replacement and coronary artery bypass graft versus percutaneous coronary intervention. Procedures and diagnoses were identified by International Classification of Disease, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes. After cardiac procedures, 90-day ischemic stroke readmission rate was highest after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (2.05%); 90-day hemorrhagic stroke rate was highest after left ventricular assist device placement (0.09%). The hazard ratio for ischemic stroke after transcatheter aortic valve replacement, compared with surgical aortic valve replacement, in fully adjusted Cox models was 1.86 (95% confidence interval, 1.12-3.08; P=0.016) and 6.17 (95% confidence interval, 1.97-19.33; P=0.0018) for hemorrhagic stroke. There was no difference between coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous coronary intervention.

Conclusions: We demonstrated elevated readmission rates for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke in the intermediate 30-, 60-, and 90-day risk periods following common cardiac procedures. Furthermore, we found an elevated risk of stroke after transcatheter aortic valve replacement compared with surgical aortic valve replacement up to 1 year.

Keywords: cardiac surgery; epidemiology; stroke.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Brain Ischemia / diagnosis
  • Brain Ischemia / epidemiology*
  • Brain Ischemia / therapy
  • Cardiac Surgical Procedures / adverse effects*
  • Coronary Artery Bypass / adverse effects
  • Databases, Factual
  • Female
  • Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / adverse effects
  • Humans
  • Intracranial Hemorrhages / diagnosis
  • Intracranial Hemorrhages / epidemiology*
  • Intracranial Hemorrhages / therapy
  • Kaplan-Meier Estimate
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Patient Readmission
  • Percutaneous Coronary Intervention / adverse effects
  • Proportional Hazards Models
  • Risk Assessment
  • Risk Factors
  • Stroke / diagnosis
  • Stroke / epidemiology*
  • Stroke / therapy
  • Time Factors
  • Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement / adverse effects
  • Treatment Outcome
  • United States / epidemiology