This article interviews several stroke specialists about his case. As I have mentioned previously, a stroke occluder was used to close his PFO. Several studies have been done to evaluate subsequent stroke risk.
One of the largest trials involving 307 patients concluded the following:
The annual recurrence rate was 0.6 percent for a transient ischemic attack and 0.2 percent for peripheral embolism; there were no subsequent strokes.
Another study puts the rate of recurrent neurologic events after one year at 0 to 4.9 percent.
None of these studies were done in a patient population approximating an NFL football player.
