Neurological outcomes are a significant adverse consequence of CABG, making improvements in surgical techniques like off-pump CABG important for patient quality of life.
Neurological risk after CABG warrants technique optimization; leaves open whether off-pump approaches reduce events in rigorous trials.
Since its introduction in 1968, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has resulted in superior survival and a better quality of life for specific subgroups of patients with coronary artery disease when compared to medical therapy (1). For most patients, CABG and the combined use of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) have resulted in clinically undetectable deficits, but in a significant minority the results have been more serious (2). Of all the adverse consequences associated with bypass grafting, neurological outcomes represent an important proportion (3). Given that more than 650,000 people in the United States and 800,000 worldwide undergo CABG (4), improvements in surgical techniques and patient management stand to have an impact on significant numbers of patients with respect to both medical costs and quality of life.
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Lazar et al. (2004) studied this question.
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