[Coronary reoperation: a 16 years retrospective analysis]

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) reoperation is being performed with increasing frequency.

To assess the early and long term results of coronary reoperations in our institution and to identify prognostic factors.

214 patients subjected to coronary reoperations between 1983 and 1999 were retrospectively studied.

Mean age was 64.2 years (range 42-79 years), 202 (94.4%) were male and 12 (5.6%) female. The mean interval between the operations was 125.7 months (range 6-252 months). 10 (4.6%) were emergency surgeries. Overall operative mortality was 5.6% (11 deaths) and in 5 patients (3.4%) a perioperative myocardial infarction was noted. Univariate analysis identified moderate or severe left ventricular failure (p = 0.048) as predictor of increased operative mortality, meanwhile age over 75 years (p = 0.02) and moderate or severe left ventricular failure (p = 0.01) were identified as predictors of increased in hospital mortality in the multivariate analysis. Follow up of in hospital survivors (mean interval 65 months, range 4 to 190 months) documented a 5 years survival rate of 82.9%, a 10 years survival rate of 73.1% and a 15 years survival rate of 53.4%. Moderate or severe left ventricular failure (p < 0.0001) and emergency surgeries (p = 0.007) were identified as factors influencing the late survival in the stepwise logistical regression analysis. Multivariate analysis identified left ventricular failure (p = 0.01) and peripheral vascular disease (p = 0.01) as predictors of decreased late survival.

Coronary reoperation has a low mortality in patients with a normal ventricular function and also has an excellent overall and disease free survival in the first 10 years of follow up. Left ventricular function is an independent risk factor increasing in hospital and late mortality.