Short-term clinical outcomes after off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting at a single Veterans Affairs Medical Center

BACKGROUND: We retrospectively assessed the outcomes after coronary revascularization at a single Veterans Affairs Medical Center when a strategy of assigning higher risk patients to off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) was employed. METHODS: Over a 5 year period all consecutive patients that underwent CABG at our VA Medical Center were assigned to a surgeon who either performs the CABG exclusively off-pump or to one who performed the CABG on-pump. The higher risk patients were assigned preferentially for off-pump revascularization. VASQIP (VA Hospitals Surgical Quality Improvement Program) data between 10/2007 and 12/2012 were retrospectively reviewed at our VA Medical Center and the short term outcomes were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 252 consecutive patients underwent off-pump CABG (n = 170) and on-pump CABG (n = 82). There were significantly more patients with low LVEF (<45 %; p = 0.008) and cerebrovascular disease in the off-pump group (p = 0.024). The number of patients smoking at the time of surgery was significantly higher in the off-pump group (p = 0.002) as well. The 30-day composite morbidity and mortality was 6 % for all CABG patients and significantly lower with off-pump vs. on-pump CABG (3.5 % vs. 11 %; p = 0.019). There were no conversions from off-pump to on-pump surgery. CONCLUSIONS: A selective strategy to direct higher risk patients towards an off-pump revascularization yielded favorable outcomes in an unselected veteran population treated at a single VA Medical Center over a 5 year period.