Protecting the Brain in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

OR MUCH OF THE 35-YEAR HISTORY OF CORONARY ARtery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, the prevailing belief among cardiovascular physicians was that neurological complications of the procedure were infrequent, consisting primarily of a 1% to 5% incidence of stroke. 1 Some patients reported to their physicians that they were “not quite right” intellectually after the procedure, but such problems were not systematically examined and seemed to be uncommon. Using preoperative and postoperative neuropsychological testing, researchers from many centers have now convincingly demonstrated that measurable cognitive dysfunction is actually a common complication of CABG surgery, with an incidence of up to 80% to 90% at hospital