AVC : a little surgery on the heart reduces the risk of recidivism

tonodiaz/epictura

Published the 14.09.2017 at 18h31

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Keywords :

AVCchirurgie heart

Every year, 140 000 cerebral vascular accidents (STROKE) are identified in France. It is the leading cause of physical disability acquired adult. They are due to the occlusion of a blood vessel in the brain, caused by a blood clot. Most of the time, the clot is formed because of a heart condition or blood.
But in 30 to 40% of cases, none of these underlying diseases may not be questioned. On the other hand, a heart defect very common, the foramen ovale, could be associated with a portion of these cases that are not explained.

A French team, led by professor Jean-Louis Mas, head of the neurology service of the Sainte-Anne hospital (AP-HP), has shown that a surgical operation for correcting this anomaly could significantly reduce the risk of recurrent STROKE.

A fault very common

The foramen ovale is a hole between the two atria of the heart. Open during the gestation, it closes after birth. When it does not close completely, it is called patent foramen ovale. This anomaly would affect between 10 and 35 % of young adults.

The work carried out since several decades, tending to show that this anomaly favoured the occurrence of STROKE, and the recurrence, the Pr Mas and his team from Inserm, the université Paris Descartes and AP-HP conducted a large clinical trial, over 10 years. They publish the results in the New England Journal of Medicine.