Spinal cord infarction following coronary artery bypass grafting surgery

Abstract

Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is performed 350,000 times annually in the United States, making it one of the most commonly performed major operations. A 1-2% stroke rate, which includes spinal artery infarct, is associated with CABG primarily in the elderly population (1). Spinal cord infarction is infrequent, but only incomplete or indirect data are available on incidence or prevalence. A large study showed that only 9 of 3784 autopsies revealed spinal cord infarction, with an occurrence rate of 0.23% at death. Conversely, if spinal stroke accounts for approximately 1.2% of all strokes, an overall annual incidence of 12 in 100,000 can be estimated (1). After an extensive literature review, we found only one case of spinal cord infarction after CABG surgery.