Frequency of and determinants of stroke after surgical aortic valve replacement in patients with previous cardiac surgery (from the Multicenter RECORD Initiative).

Surgical aortic valve replacement (S-AVR) after previous cardiac surgery is expected to be associated with a high rate of adverse events. The aim of this study was to estimate the rate and identify the determinants of postoperative stroke in these patients. This is a multicenter study including 741 patients who underwent S-AVR after previous cardiac surgery. Forty-eight patients (6.5%; after isolated AVR, 6.0%) suffered stroke and 10 of them died during the in-hospital stay (20.8%). At multivariate analysis, women (10.2% vs 4.4%, odds ratio [OR] 2.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36 to 4.86), emergency procedure (15.1% vs 4.8%, OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.12 to 5.78), perioperative use of intra-aortic balloon pump (22.9% vs 5.3%, OR 2.67, 95% CI 1.15 to 6.19), cardiopulmonary bypass time of >210 minutes (15.7% vs 5.0%, OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.13 to 4.71), blood products transfusion (9.3% vs 0.8%, OR 7.75, 95% CI 1.83 to 32.93), and reexploration for bleeding (24.0% vs 5.2%, OR 4.84, 95% CI 2.18 to 10.77) were independent predictors of postoperative stroke. These findings were confirmed by a regression model including CHA2DS2-VASc score of ≥2, which itself was predictive of stroke (8.2% vs 1.6%, OR 4.52, 95% CI 1.34 to 15.28). Survival at 3 years in patients with postoperative stroke was 51.9%, whereas it was 85.0% in control patients (adjusted analysis: relative risk 2.97 and 1.86 to 4.72, respectively). In conclusion, the risk of postoperative stroke after S-AVR in patients with previous cardiac surgery is high and has an impact on the immediate and late mortality. Excessive bleeding requiring blood transfusion and/or reexploration, prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass time, and use of intra-aortic balloon pump were associated with an extremely high rate of stroke.