LAUSR

Perioperative stroke in non-vascular, non-neurological surgery is a potential cause of high levels of in-hospital morbidity and mortality. Although, perioperative stroke following non-vascular and non-neurological surgery is a relatively infrequent event; high surgical volume results in thousands of patients experiencing neurological deficits. We aim to determine if perioperative stroke is an independent risk factor for 30-day in-hospital morbidity and mortality following common non-vascular non-neurological surgery. This is a retrospective analysis of 4,264,963 surgical procedures identified in the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) from the years 2000 through 2011. The exposure of interest was stroke within 30 days of total knee arthroscopy, total hip arthroscopy, lung segmentation and resection, appendectomy, hemicolectomy, cholecystectomy, and lysis of peritoneal adhesions. Study outcomes were in-hospital mortality and in-hospital morbidity. Our study found an in-hospital morbidity, in-hospital mortality, and perioperative stroke rate of 5.5%, 0.8%, and 0.2%, respectively. Multivariable analysis revealed perioperative stroke to be a significant independent predictor (p < 0.001) of length of stay exceeding 14 days (OR = 4.55, 95% CI: 4.21-4.91), cardiovascular complications (OR = 1.96, 95% CI: 1.75-2.19), pulmonary complications (OR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.89-2.27). The impact of perioperative stroke on in-hospital mortality was (OR = 8.53, 95% CI: 7.87-9.25), whereas cardiovascular complications impact on in-hospital mortality was (OR = 8.36, 95% CI = 7.67-9.10, p < 0.001). This study identified perioperative stroke as an independent predictor of 30-day in-hospital morbidity and mortality following non-vascular, non-neurological surgery.