Renal failure predisposes patients to adverse outcome after coronary artery bypass surgery. VA Cooperative Study #5

More than 600,000 coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures are done annually in the United States. Some data indicate that 10 to 20% of patients who are undergoing a CABG procedure have a serum creatinine of more than 1.5 mg/dl. There are few data on the impact of a mild increase in serum creatinine concentration on CABG outcome.

We analyzed a Veterans Affairs database obtained prospectively from 1992 through 1996 at 14 of 43 centers performing heart surgery. We compared the outcome after CABG in patients with a baseline serum creatinine of less than 1.5 mg/dl (median 1.1 mg/dl, N = 3271) to patients with a baseline serum creatinine of 1.5 to 3.0 mg/dl (median 1.7, N = 631).

Univariate analysis revealed that patients with a serum creatinine of 1.5 to 3.0 mg/dl had a higher 30-day mortality (7% vs. 3%, P < 0.001) requirement for prolonged mechanical ventilation (15% vs. 8%, P = 0.001), stroke (7% vs. 2%, P < 0.001), renal failure requiring dialysis at discharge (3% vs. 1%, P < 0.001), and bleeding complications (8% vs. 3%, P < 0.001) than patients with a baseline serum creatinine of less than 1.5 mg/dl. Multiple logistic regression analyses found that patients with a baseline serum creatinine of less than 1.5 mg/dl had significantly lower (P < 0.02) 30-day mortality and postoperative bleeding and ventilatory complications than patients with a serum creatinine of 1.5 to 3.0 mg/dl when controlling for all other variables.

These results demonstrate that mild renal failure is an independent risk factor for adverse outcome after CABG.