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Predictors of operative outcome in patients with severely depressed left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) remain poorly defined. This study aims to identify preoperative variables that are associated with increased postoperative length of hospital stay or operative mortality in this patient population.Retrospective study.Single tertiary care university hospital.Patients undergoing isolated CABG between January 2012 and March 2017 with an LVEF ≤ 25%.Isolated CABG.Primary endpoint was a composite of prolonged length of stay, defined as postoperative length of stay7 days or operative mortality. Of the 201 patients, 99 (49.3%) met the primary endpoint. Patient comorbidities, clinical presentation, presence of Q-waves on electrocardiogram, and echocardiographic parameters including ventricular dimensions and right heart dysfunction were not associated with the primary endpoint. On multivariable analysis, patients who were not on preoperative beta-blockers, patients with preoperative albumin of3.5 g/dL, and higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality score were associated with increased prolonged length of stay or death.More than half of patients with severely depressed LVEF undergoing isolated CABG are able to be discharged within 7 days postoperatively. The absence of preoperative beta-blockers, low preoperative albumin levels, and higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons Predicted Risk of Mortality score are associated with more complicated or slower postoperative recovery after CABG in this patient population.

To determine the impact of postoperative hypothermia on outcomes in coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) patients.A retrospective study was performed on patients who underwent isolated CABG between 2011 and 2014.Single-center study at a university hospital.All patients who underwent isolated CABG with cardiopulmonary bypass between 2011 and 2014.Patients underwent isolated CABG on cardiopulmonary bypass.Patients were propensity-score matched based on the likelihood of being hypothermic (36ºC) or normothermic (≥36ºC) on arrival to the cardiac surgery intensive care unit (ICU) from the operating room. Total transfusion requirements, composite in-hospital morbidity and/or mortality endpoint, total hours in the ICU, and length of hospital stay were compared between the 2 groups. Of the 1,030 patients undergoing isolated CABG, 529 (51.3%) were hypothermic on arrival to the ICU. The hypothermic cohort were older, had more females, had lower body mass indices, had lower starting hematocrit values, were cooled to lower temperatures while on cardiopulmonary bypass, and had longer cardiopulmonary bypass runs compared with the normothermic group. Of the 748 patients who were propensity matched, there were no differences in blood and blood product transfusion requirements, mortality and complication rates, time on the ventilator, length of ICU stay, and length of hospital stay between hypothermic and normothermic patients.Hypothermia at ICU admission after CABG was not associated with increased adverse outcomes, possibly suggesting that complete rewarming before separation from cardiopulmonary bypass may not be essential in all patients.

Objective The objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of 2 established risk models for surgical mortality in a contemporary cohort of patients undergoing repair of acute type-A aortic dissection. Design Retrospective analysis. Setting Single tertiary care hospital. Participants Seventy-nine consecutive patients undergoing emergent repair of acute type-A aortic dissection between 2008 and 2013. Intervention All patients underwent emergent repair of acute type-A aortic dissection. Measurements and Main Results The receiver operating characteristic curve was compared for each scoring system. Of the 79 patients undergoing emergent repair of acute type-A aortic dissection, 23 (29.1%) were above the age of 70. Seventeen (21.5%) patients presented with hypotension, 25 (31.6%) presented with limb ischemia, and 10 (12.7%) presented with evidence of visceral ischemia. Overall operative mortality was 16.5%. Increasing age was the only preoperative variable associated with increased operative mortality. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve for operative mortality was 0.62 and 0.66 for the scoring systems developed by Rampoldi et al and Centofanti et al, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for operative mortality for age was 0.67. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve for operative mortality between the 2 scoring systems and for age were not statistically different. Conclusions Existing predictive risk models for acute type-A aortic dissection provide moderate discriminatory power for operative mortality. Age as a single variable may provide equivalent discriminatory power for operative mortality as the established risk models.

To determine the incremental risk associated with each intraoperative red blood cell transfusion in cardiac surgery patients.Retrospective analysis on prospectively collected data.Single tertiary care hospital.Seven hundred forty-five patients undergoing on-pump cardiac surgery between January 2010 and June 2012 who received between 1 and 3 units of red blood cell transfusion intraoperatively.All patients received between 1 and 3 units of red blood cell transfusions. All transfusions were with leukoreduced blood that had been stored for14 days.Postoperative complications and length of intubation were associated with the number of red blood cell units transfused. Transfusion of each additional unit of red blood cells was associated with incrementally worse outcomes. Median length of intubation was 11 hours, 12 hours, and 13 hours in patients receiving 1, 2, and 3 units of red blood cell transfusions, respectively (p0.005). Similarly, each additional unit of red blood cell transfusion was associated with increasing postoperative septicemia (0% v 0.35% v 2.29%, p0.006) and postoperative pneumonia (0% v 0.70% v 2.29%, p0.013).There is a step-wise increase in length of postoperative intubation with each red blood cell transfusion in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Each additional unit of intraoperative RBC transfusion also may increase postoperative infectious complications. Thus, even single-unit reductions in red blood cell transfusions may have significant impact on outcomes.