Objectives: This study describes the preoperative cardiovascular characteristics, intraoperative data, in-hospital complications and factors associated to procedural-related complications in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Background: There is a growing body of evidence of CABG safety and efficacy; however, limited data is available regarding the value of this surgical procedure in the Puerto Rican population.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 200 consecutive patients submitted to CABG at the Cardiovascular Center of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean over a three-month period in 1997. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine factors associated with the occurrence of complications.
Results: The most frequent cardiac risk factor was hypertension (77%); stable angina (60.5%) was the predominant cardiac clinical diagnosis. Three vessel disease with proximal left anterior descending coronary artery stenosis (42.1%) was the most common anatomical lesion. The rate of major complications such as death (3%), perioperative myocardial infarction (2%), reoperation to control bleeding (1.5%), pulmonary embolism (1%), and stroke (1%) was low and similar to the rate reported elsewhere. Multivariate analysis showed that non-use of LIMA graft, extended hospital stay, prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass time, and left ventricular dysfunction were significantly associated with the occurrence of complications (p < 0.05); on the other hand, there was a trend for older age to be associated with the occurrence of complications (p = 0.057).
Conclusions: CABG is being performed with an acceptably low complication rate in this institution.