Does female gender worsen post-operative outcomes in patients undergoing CABG?
Despite comparable mortality rates, women undergoing CABG continue to experience a higher burden of postoperative morbidity, including prolonged ventilator dependence and cardiac readmissions, compared to men.
BACKGROUND: Appreciation of unique presentation, patterns and underlying pathophysiology of coronary artery disease in women has driven gender based risk stratification and risk reduction efforts over the last decade. Data regarding whether these advances have resulted in unequivocal improvements in outcomes of CABG in women is conflicting. The objective of our study was to assess gender differences in post-operative outcomes following CABG. METHODS: Retrospective analyses of institutional data housed in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) database for patients undergoing CABG between 2002 and 2020 were conducted. Multivariable regression analysis was conducted to investigate gender differences in post-operative outcomes. P-values were adjusted using Bonferroni correction to reduce type-I errors. RESULTS: Our final cohort of 6,250 patients had fewer women than men (1,339 vs. 4,911). more women were diabetic (52.0% vs. 41.2%, p48 hours (OR: 1.65 1.21, 2.45, p = 0.002) and cardiac readmissions (OR: 1.56 1.27, 2.30, p = 0.003). After adjustment for comorbidity burden, mortality rates in women were comparable to those of age-matched men. CONCLUSION: The findings of our study indicate that despite apparent reduction of differences in mortality, the burden of postoperative morbidity is still high among women.
Matyal et al. (Wed,) studied this question.