ABSTRACT
118 patients (79 mean and 39 women, mean age of 50.7 years) who underwent cardiovascular surgery and extracorporeal oxygenation were prospectively evaluated for neurologic complication and its correlation with risk factors. 71 were submitted to coronary artery graft by-pass (RM), 18 to valve replacement (TV), 6 to prosthetic valve replacement (RV), 11 to commissurotomy(Co), 5 to thoracic aortic aneurysm correction (An Ao T) and 7 to other surgeries (OT). All of them received extracorporeal oxygenation. No deaths were registered; 14 (11.9%) patients had neurologic abnormalities: delirium in 7 cases, ischemic stroke in 6, epileptic seizure in 3. Patients with systemic arterial hypertension and older patients exhibited a statistically significant (p < 0.05) higher risk of complication. Compared to data of the literature, we had a lower index of morbidity and mortality.