Abstract
Objectives: A recent meta-analysis suggested that volatile anesthetics reduce postoperative mortality after cardiac surgery. Nonetheless, whether volatile anesthetics improve the outcome of cardiac surgical patients is still a matter of debate. The authors investigated whether the use of volatile anesthetics reduces mortality in cardiac surgery. Design, Setting, and Interventions: A longitudinal study of 34,310 coronary artery bypass graft interventions performed in Italy estimated the risk-adjusted mortality ratio for each center. A survey was conducted among these centers to investigate whether the use of volatile anesthetics showed a correlation with mortality. Measurements and Main Results: All 64 eligible centers provided the required data. The median unadjusted 30-day mortality among participating centers was 2.2% (0.3-8.8), whereas the median risk-adjusted 30-day mortality was 1.8% (0.1-7.2). Risk-adjusted analysis showed that the use of volatile anesthetics was associated with a significantly lower rate of risk-adjusted 30-day mortality (β = -1.172 [-2.259, -0.085], R2 = 0.070, p = 0.035). Dichotomization into centers using volatile anesthetics in at least 25% of their cases or in less than 25% yielded even more statistically significant results (p = 0.003). Furthermore, a longer use of volatile anesthetics was associated with a significantly lower death rate (p = 0.022); and exploring the impact of the specific volatile anesthetic agent, the use of isoflurane was associated with significant reductions in risk-adjusted mortality rates (p = 0.039). Conclusions: This survey among 64 Italian centers shows that risk-adjusted mortality may be reduced by the use of volatile agents in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 594-599 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2009 |
Keywords
- cardiac anesthesia
- cardiac surgery
- coronary artery bypass graft surgery
- halogenated anesthetics
- mortality
- myocardial damage
- total intravenous anesthesia
- volatile anesthetics
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine