Prophylactic Cerebrovascular Reconstructive Surgery for Occlusive Cerebrovascular Disease in Patients with Cardiac Surgery

We report the outcomes of prophylactic cerebral reconstructive surgery aimed at reducing the incidence of perioperative cerebral infarction in patients with intracranial or extracranial occlusive cerebrovascular disease who were scheduled to undergo cardiac surgery. Before the surgery, carotid artery ultrasonography, magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) of the carotid artery, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MRA of the brain were performed on 875 patients. The high-risk group was defined as: patients with cervical carotid artery stenosis of at least 90%, those with a reduced cerebral perfusion reserve because of occlusion of the internal carotid or middle cerebral artery, and those with a reduced cerebral perfusion reserve because of major intracranial artery stenosis of at least 75%. According to the degree of cardiac reserve, patients in the high-risk group underwent carotid artery stenting (CAS), carotid endarterectomy (CEA), superficial temporal artery-middle cerebral artery (STA-MCA) anastomosis, or percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). Of the 875 patients, 29 (3.3%) were classified in the high-risk group, and 16 underwent prophylactic revascularization and cardiac surgery. Prophylactic revascularization included CAS in 7 patients (including stenting of the intracranial internal carotid artery in 1 patient), CEA in 4, STA-MCA in 4 and PTA in 1. Cardiac surgery was performed on 870 of the 875 patients, and perioperative cerebral infarction occurred in 11 (1.3%). It is uncertain whether our treatment strategy significantly reduced the incidence of perioperative cerebral infarction because of the lack of accurate information on the number of patients with this condition before the present study. However, 73% of patients had a score of 1 or 2 on the modified Rankin Scale 1 month after the onset of cerebral infarction, suggesting that our strategy improved the outcome.