Marc S. Kanchuger, MD

Stroke is a devastating complication of cardiac surgery. Major stroke can occur in 2-8% of various cardiac surgery procedures. Atherosclerotic disease of the ascending aorta is a major risk factor for stroke in medical and cardiac surgery patients, increasing stroke risk significantly.

Marc S. Kanchuger, M.D. and his co-investigators are part of a large multicenter study group of Perioperative Ischemia centered in San Francisco. He and his co-investigators are identifying patients at risk for adverse CNS outcomes using epidemiological studies in conjunction with 25 universities in the United States.

At NYU they are using various echocardiographic techniques to identify patients at risk for stroke and investigating different approaches to reduce the stroke risk during cardiac surgery. Studies are also underway using transcranial Doppler technology to identify brain micro-embolism during CPB and methods to reduce this problem. The identification of these high risk groups for stroke may lead us to drug modalities to reduce brain ischemia, since it may be impossible to eliminate brain micro-embolism entirely during cardiac surgery.

Representative