Summ aryAir embolism from the left heart cavities after cardiopulmonary bypass still carries a high mortality a nd morbidity. To prevent this danger we have standardized a surgical tech niq ue basical ly co nsisting of estab lishing an acute arteriovenous f ist ula between the asce ndi ng aorta and t he right atrium immediately after coming off bypass. A retrospective ana lysis o f neuro logical complicatio ns showed that in 457 valvular pat ients operated upon before the use of this tech niq ue, 33 had neurological lesions (7 .2 %), as opposed to 34 o ut of 8 34 patie nt s (4 .1 %) after its use (p < 0.0251 .