Clinical outcomes
Patients suffering a postoperative stroke had inferior outcomes compared to matched control patients (Table 5). Patients experiencing a stroke had a significantly prolonged period of ventilation (median 98 vs 10 hours; p<0.001) and length of ICU stay (median 192 vs 26.6 hours; p<0.001). Bleeding outcomes were similar between the patients with similar 12-hour blood loss (p=0.325) and return to theatre rate (p=0.546). The duration of inpatient stay was also significantly prolonged in patients experiencing a stroke (median 12.9 vs 8 days; p<0.001. The additional cost per patient attributed to the prolongation of ICU and ward LOS at our institution is £10,247. Furthermore, 59.4% of these patients were transferred to their local hospital for ongoing stroke rehabilitation incurring further costs to the healthcare system, compared to 12.2% for matched controls (p<0.01).
Patients experiencing a stroke had a high incidence of developing a respiratory tract infection (36.4% compared to 8.2% for matched controls) and 71.5% experienced acute kidney injury (stage 1 53.9%, stage 2 7.9% and stage 3 9.7%) compared to 20.8% for matched controls.