Coronary artery bypass grafting in octogenarians--outcome with and without extracorporeal circulation

Octogenarians are increasingly considered for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), but still represent a high-risk patient group with increased mortality and morbidity. In recent years off-pump surgery has been successfully established in CABG. The avoidance of extracorporeal circulation (ECC) seems to be of particular benefit for this patient group. We retrospectively analyzed our experience with CABG surgery with and without ECC in octogenarians to define the potential benefit of these different approaches in this high-risk group of patients. We analyzed the outcome after isolated CABG of 344 consecutive patients (219 male, 125 female, age: 82 +/- 2.4 years) who were aged 80 or older. Patients were divided into two groups according to the use of ECC. The on-pump group consisted of 237 patients (151 male, 86 female, 82 +/- 2.8 years) and the off-pump group consisted of 107 patients (68 male, 39 female, 82 +/- 1.9 years). The predicted EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE mortality risk were similar for both patient groups. The overall hospital mortality rate was 5.5 % (n = 17): 14 patients (5.9 %) in the on-pump group (n = 237, 100 %) and five patients (4.6 %) in the off-pump group (n = 107, 100 %). The average number of grafts in the on-pump group was 2.8 +/- 0.4 and it was 2.4 +/- 0.6 in the off-pump group ( P = 0.05). Morbidity was comparable in both groups. Significant variables in multivariate regression were preoperative atrial fibrillation ( P = 0.03; RR = 2.7), COPD ( P = 0.0001; RR = 6.5) and prolonged intubation ( P = 0.005; RR = 4.1). Isolated CABG in octogenarians can be performed with good clinical results, although a substantial mortality remains. The results of coronary surgery in this patient group with and without ECC are comparable with respect to mortality and morbidity.