Baseline Preoperative Characteristics and Operative Details
A total of 10,285 patients were included in this study: 6,441 (63%) isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), 2,290 (22%) isolated valves, and 1,554 (15%) combined CABG and valve procedures. Of these, 10,039 (97.6%) patients did not experience a postoperative GI complication, whereas 246 (2.4%) of patients did. In comparison to those without GI complications, patients with these complications were older and had higher incidence of preoperative comorbidities such as atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, prior myocardial infarction, history of immunosuppression, liver disease, peripheral vascular disease, and/or cerebrovascular disease. Mean preoperative total bilirubin (0.76 ± 0.46 vs 0.69 ± 0.39, P=0.012), Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score (11.15 ± 4.45 vs 8.83 ± 3.12, P<0.001), and serum creatinine (1.48 ± 1.32 vs 1.16 ± 1.01, P<0.001) were also higher in patients that had GI complications (Table 1 ).
Preoperative Society of Thoracic Surgeons predicted risk of mortality was higher in patients with GI complications (7.41% ± 8.54% vs 3.10% ± 4.88%, P<0.001). Patients who experienced GI complications were more commonly bridged to surgical therapy with intravenous inotropes and/or intra-aortic balloon pump counter pulsation. In both cohorts, the most common procedure performed was coronary artery bypass grafting (51.6% vs 62.9%, P<0.001). Mean aortic cross-clamp time was longer in patients who experienced GI complications (93.04 ± 40.69 minutes vs 82.15 ± 35.54 minutes, P<0.001)(Table 1 ).