[Central nervous system risk factors in heart surgery].

Serious complications involving the central nervous system in the course of cardiac surgical procedures have become rare. Nevertheless, CNS dysfunctions still are observed in a considerable number of patients, exceeding by far the number of those at risk from preoperative neurological hazards. The influence of extracorporeal circulation performance and hypothermia on the physiology of cerebral autoregulation, as well as microembolization events seem to be crucial factors in this context.