Cardiovascular-related mortality after intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring changes during carotid endarterectomy.

Objective: We examined significant intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring (IONM) changes and perioperative stroke as independent risk factors of long-term cardiovascular-related mortality in patients who have undergone carotid endarterectomy (CEA).
Methods: Records of patients who underwent CEA with IONM at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Cardiovascular-related mortality was compared between the significant IONM change group and no IONM change group and between the perioperative stroke group and no perioperative stroke group.
Results: Our final cohort consisted of 2,090 patients. Patients with significant IONM changes showed nearly twice the rate of cardiovascular-related mortality up to 10 years post-CEA (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.98; 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.20 - 3.26]). Patients with perioperative stroke were four times more likely than patients without perioperative stroke to experience cardiovascular-related mortality (HR = 4.09; 95% CI [2.13 - 7.86]).
Conclusions: Among CEA patients who underwent CEA and who experienced significant IONM changes or perioperative stroke, we observed long-term increased and sustained risk of cardiovascular-related mortality.
Significance: Significant IONM changes are valuable in predicting the risk of long-term outcomes following CEA.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)