The Effects of Preoperative Aspirin on Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: a Systematic Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Aspirin plays an important role in the maintenance of graft patency and the prevention of thrombotic event after coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). However, the use of preoperative aspirin is still under debate due to the risk of bleeding. METHODS: From PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers. Meta-analysis using random effect model was performed. RESULTS: We performed a systemic meta-analysis of 17 studies (12 randomized controlled studies and 5 non-randomized registries) which compared clinical outcomes of 9,101 patients who underwent CABG with or without preoperative aspirin administration. Preoperative aspirin increased chest tube drainage (weighted mean difference 177.4 mL, 95% confidence interval [CI], 41.3–313.4; p=0.011). However, the risk of re-operation for bleeding was not different between the preoperative aspirin group and the control group (3.2% vs. 2.4%; odds ratio [OR], 1.23; 95% CI, 0.94–1.60; p=0.102). There was no difference in the rates of all-cause mortality (1.6% vs. 1.5%; OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.64–1.49; p=0.920) and myocardial infarction (MI) (8.7% vs. 10.4%; OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.66–1.04; p=0.102) between patients with and without preoperative aspirin administration. CONCLUSIONS: Although aspirin increased the amount of chest tube drainage, it was not associated with increased risk of re-operation for bleeding. In addition, the risks of early postoperative all-cause mortality and MI were not reduced by using preoperative aspirin.