Myocardial infarction after carotid endarterectomy

Abstract

Introduction. Myocardial infarction is a severe complication after carotid endarterectomy. Searching for predictors of its development is actual problem of current cardiovascular surgery. Material and methods. The study included 1018 patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy. Postoperative myocardial infarction (MI) was diagnosed in 38 (3.7%) patients. These patients were included into study group. Control group enrolled 980 (96.3%) patients without MI. Results. Patients who had postoperative myocardial infarction were older (p = 0.005). Atrial fibrillation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and severe arterial hypertension (p<0.0001) have been more frequently diagnosed in these group. At the same time they rarer received statins (p<0.0001) and beta-blockers (p=0.02). Correlation analysis revealed a relationship between myocardial infarction, COPD, atrial fibrillation, pulmonary hypertension and beta-blockers administration with development of postoperative acute myocardial infarction. Conclusion. Above-mentioned predictors of myocardial infarction should be considered before carotid arteries reconstruction to reduce incidence of this complication.