Table 3.

Complication rate after surgical closure of PFO.

Reference	Patients (n)	Complications reported
Cujec B et al. Can J Cardiol 1999;15:57–64 (75)	14	No neurological recurrences during a mean follow-up of 43 months (crude incidence rate difference 12%/patient/year, 95% CI = 6.6–17.9, P < 0.02)
Dearani JA et al. Circulation 1999;100(19 Suppl):II171–II175 (74)	91	Follow-up totaled 176.3 patient-years and mean follow-up was 2.0 years. 8 had a TIA during follow-up. The overall freedom from TIA recurrence during follow-up was 92.5 ± 3.2% at 1 year and 83.4 ± 6.0% at 4 years
Devuyst G et al. Neurology 1996;47:1162–1166 (73)	30	After a mean follow-up of 2 years without antithrombotic treatment, no recurrent cerebrovascular event (stroke or TIA) and no new lesion on MRI had developed
Ruchat P et al. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 1997;11:824–827 (76)	32	All patients were followed-up corresponding to a cumulative time of 601 patient-months. This revealed no recurrent vascular events nor silent new brain lesions on brain MRI
Sabata RA et al. World J Pediatr Congenit Heart Surg 2014;5:527–533 (77)	27	Follow-up: mean = 1.5 years, maximum = 4.2 years. No recurrence of neurological events