Stroke after Aortic Valve Surgery: Results from a Prospective Cohort.

The authors of this paper prospectively studied stroke after aortic valve replacement (AVR) in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) and >65years old. Neurological status was assessed pre- and postoperatively assessed by neurologists, postoperatively by MRI and strokes were evaluated according to the National Institutes of Health Stroke Sscale. The authors show that the incidence of clinical stroke after AVR was higher than for the same cohort in the STS database. Moreover, sub-clinical infarctions were detected in >50% of all AVRs. Clinical stroke was associated with longer hospital stay and higher mortality.