Predicting Readmission to Intensive Care After Cardiac Surgery Within Index Hospitalization: A Systematic Review

Readmission to the cardiac intensive care unit after cardiac surgery has significant implications for both patients and healthcare providers. Identifying patients at risk of readmission potentially could improve outcomes. The objective of this systematic review was to identify risk factors and clinical prediction models for readmission within a single hospitalization to intensive care after cardiac surgery. PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases were searched to identify candidate articles. Only studies that used multivariate analyses to identify independent predictors were included. There were 25 studies and five risk prediction models identified. The overall rate of readmission pooled across the included studies was 4.9%. In all 25 studies, in-hospital mortality and duration of hospital stay were higher in patients who experienced readmission. Recurring predictors for readmission were preoperative renal failure, age >70, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction <30%, type and urgency of surgery, prolonged cardiopulmonary bypass time, prolonged postoperative ventilation, postoperative anemia, and neurologic dysfunction. The majority of readmissions occurred due to respiratory and cardiac complications. Four models were identified for predicting readmission, with one external validation study. As all models developed to date had limitations, further work on larger datasets is required to develop clinically useful models to identify patients at risk of readmission to the cardiac intensive care unit after cardiac surgery.