 It is not uncommon for a cardiac surgical patient to have his heart fixed but his brain damaged. Sometimes the damage is overt and manifests itself as a major neurological deficiency. The frequency of stroke, the so called type 1 damage, is reported to be between 1 and 4 percent. This may increase mortality from 1.4 to 22 and hospitalization from 6.6 days to 17.5 days. Diffuse encephalopathy, presenting as delirium, confusion, coma and seizures, so called type 2 damage, is reported to appear in a much higher frequency of 3 to 7, depending on timing and methods of evaluation. This type of damage will increase mortality from 1.4 to 7.5 and hospitalization from 6.6 to 15.2. Sometimes it is more subtle and appears as neurocognitive decline. This type of damage may be found in 53 of the patients at discharge, in 24 after six months and the frequency rises again to 42 at five years. The impact on the patient and his family might be devastating and the burden on the medical system and society enormous. Long term, moderate to severe disability may affect 69 of the stroke patients and survival may decline to 67 after one year. 