Broken Hearts by David S. Jones

Author:David S. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2013-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

MRI evidence of brain injury after bypass surgery. A large infarct on the left side of the brain image indicates that the patient suffered a stroke. From Roxanne Deslauriers, John K. Saunders, and Michael C. McIntyre, “Magnetic Resonance Studies of the Effects of Cardiovascular Surgery on Brain Metabolism and Function,” Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia 10 (Jan. 1996): 127–38, fig. 1, p. 128. With permission from Elsevier.

History had repeated itself. As cardiac surgeons embarked on new procedures—valve surgery in the 1950s and 1960s, coronary artery bypass in the 1970s and 1980s—they confronted an alarming toll of neurological and psychiatric complications in their patients. They developed many techniques to visualize the brain injuries, both literally and figuratively. They could hear and see emboli, they could detect damaged tissue with MRI and blood tests, and they could examine brains under microscopes and find evidence of extensive disease even in patients who otherwise seemed well. And, of course, they could speak with and examine their patients. All the resulting evidence made cerebral complications a concrete reality for clinicians. The complications were a matter of fact. At first pass they also seemed to be a matter of concern, drawing attention and effort from a range of researchers. Despite the growing evidence base, however, inattention became common once again in the 1990s.

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