Female stroke risk after surgery

Stroke is a serious complication of a heart operation

Women undergoing heart surgery have significantly more risk than a man of suffering a stroke in the following days, says research.

Everyone who undergoes major cardiac surgery has a small risk of a "neurological event" afterwards, which can include a disabling stroke.

However, a team of scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, and Duke University, examined the records of more than 400,000 men and women who had had operations.

The researchers found that 2.4% of men suffered some sort of "neurological event", compared to 3.8% of women.

There seems to be something about a woman that predisposes a patient to a higher risk for stroke after heart surgery

Dr Charles Hogue, study author

This finding was independent of other factors which might theoretically make women more prone - such as the fact that they are normally a little older when they need such surgery, or that they have smaller blood vessels.

Dr Charles Hogue, the lead author of the paper, published in the journal Circulation, said: "Being female was independent of any other risk factor.

"There seems to be something about a woman that predisposes a patient to a higher risk for stroke after heart surgery."

The overall death rate after surgery was also higher for women than it was for men.

Routine operations

The team looked at operations such as heart bypass surgery, heart valve repair and combined bypass and valve surgery - all fairly routine in hospitals.

They have no idea why being a woman appears to increase the risk of strokes after operations, or why in general, women fare worse after cardiac surgery.

Dr Victor Davila-Roman, another researcher, said: "Even though the rate of postoperative stroke is relatively low, for those who suffer this complication of surgery, the implications can be devastating.

"The important implication of this study is that perioperative stroke, although uncommon, is a very serious complication of heart surgery.

"One of our major goals is to create awareness that this is an important problem, particularly for women."