Characterization of the patients with neurological complications in the postoperative of the cardiovascular surgery

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To characterize patients treated with cardiovascular surgery at the Cardiocentro of the Hospital Saturnino Lora of Santiago de Cuba according to selected epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic and evolutionary variables and identify risk factors mostly associated with neurological complications.

METHODS: A descriptive and transverse study in the period comprised between January of 2009 until April of 2014; it included 72 patients operated of cardiovascular surgery in the Cardiocentro of the Hospital Saturnino Lora that presented any neurological complication.

RESULTS: The presence of functional class II-IV, time greater than 90 minutes by-pass and the low cardiac output were the transoperative, preoperative risk factors and post operative more frequent, present in more than 50 % of patients. The encephalopathy Post extracorporeal circulation and severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy were the most frequent complications. Neurological complications in cardiovascular surgery appear to be a multifactorial phenomenon, whose emergence and evolution could be influenced by the history of the patient.