These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Volatile anesthetics reduce mortality in cardiac surgery.
    Author: Bignami E, Biondi-Zoccai G, Landoni G, Fochi O, Testa V, Sheiban I, Giunta F, Zangrillo A.
    Journal: J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth; 2009 Oct; 23(5):594-9. PubMed ID: 19303327.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVES: A recent meta-analysis suggested that volatile anesthetics reduce postoperative mortality after cardiac surgery. Nonetheless, whether volatile anesthetics improve the outcome of cardiac surgical patients is still a matter of debate. The authors investigated whether the use of volatile anesthetics reduces mortality in cardiac surgery. DESIGN, SETTING, AND INTERVENTIONS: A longitudinal study of 34,310 coronary artery bypass graft interventions performed in Italy estimated the risk-adjusted mortality ratio for each center. A survey was conducted among these centers to investigate whether the use of volatile anesthetics showed a correlation with mortality. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All 64 eligible centers provided the required data. The median unadjusted 30-day mortality among participating centers was 2.2% (0.3-8.8), whereas the median risk-adjusted 30-day mortality was 1.8% (0.1-7.2). Risk-adjusted analysis showed that the use of volatile anesthetics was associated with a significantly lower rate of risk-adjusted 30-day mortality (beta = -1.172 [-2.259, -0.085], R(2) = 0.070, p = 0.035). Dichotomization into centers using volatile anesthetics in at least 25% of their cases or in less than 25% yielded even more statistically significant results (p = 0.003). Furthermore, a longer use of volatile anesthetics was associated with a significantly lower death rate (p = 0.022); and exploring the impact of the specific volatile anesthetic agent, the use of isoflurane was associated with significant reductions in risk-adjusted mortality rates (p = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: This survey among 64 Italian centers shows that risk-adjusted mortality may be reduced by the use of volatile agents in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]