3.3 Perioperative and early clinical outcomes
Significantly shorter ICU and hospital stay was observed in the FLS group, while other parameters were not statistically significant between the two groups. In per-protocol analysis, only hospital stay was significantly shorter in the FLS group compared with the conventional group (Table 3).
No myocardial infarctions, prosthesis endocarditis, respiratory failures, or deaths were observed in either group. One patient in the FLS group had mild PVL, whereas 4 patients in the conventional group had PVL (one mild, 2 moderate, and one severe). However, there was no significant difference in PVL incidence between the two groups, based on either in intention-to-treat (P=0.483) or per-protocol analysis (P=0.609). 2 patients in FLS and 6 patients in conventional groups experienced cerebrovascular events during perioperation. Although the number of cerebrovascular events was far more in the conventional group, there was no statistical difference between two groups. Cerebrovascular events progressed to permanent strokes in 2 patients from the conventional group, whereas the other 6 patients had no sequelae.