Incidence of Psychiatric and Neurological Complications After Cardiac Surgery - Retrospective Versus Prospective Studies

Abstract

There are two main disadvantages of retrospective over prospective studies on neuropsychiatric disturbances after cardiac surgery: Neither definition of parameters nor data-recording is standardized beforehand — and developments of symptomatology are often overlooked by an unaware medical staff. Therefore, the incidence of psychopathological dysfunction is always lower in retrospective than in prospective studies and, furthermore, it is impossible to provide an exact description of cerebral disorders in these retrospective studies; so the variety of symptomatology is lost. Systematic and standardized studies, however, generally comprise only a comparatively small number of patients. The advantage of retrospective studies lies in the possibility of covering many cases, an advantage that prompted the present study which, using a large population, examines many currently considered risk factors.