Frequency of unplanned re-admissions after coronary artery bypass grafting. Experience at a tertiary care hospital.

Abstract

Objective: To study the re-admission rate after coronary artery bypass grafting performed through a median sternotomy. Study Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore. Period: January 2018 and December 2022. Methods: Patients above the age of 18 who underwent first time CABG were included in the study. Patients with additional procedures like valve surgery were excluded. Re-admission was defined as unplanned re-hospitalization within 30 days after discharge. Data was collected on Excel sheets from the available electronic medical record system of the hospital. The data was then transported to and analyzed using IBM SPSS software (version 23, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Patients were divided into re-admission group and no re-admission group and various perioperative variables were compared between the two groups. Results: After applying the exclusion criteria, the final analysis included 503 patients. Of the cohort, 29 (5.77%) were re-admitted. Mean age of the patients in readmission group was 54.3 ± 10 years while that in the no-readmission group 52 ± 8.3 years (p=0.144). The main reasons for readmissions were superficial chest wound infection (24.14%), pericardial effusion (24.14%) and deep sternal wound infection (10.34%). Conclusion: Coronary artery bypass grafting is associated with re-admissions after planned discharge of the patients. Wound infections are the commonest cause of re-admission. Large scale multi center studies are needed to study the rate as well as financial impact of re-admissions after CABG.