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- A K Konstantakos and J H Lee.
- Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Hospitals Heart Institute, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio 44106, USA.
- Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2000 Jun 1;69(6):1842-5.
BackgroundThis study was designed to assess the safety and efficacy of extubation performed within 4 hours of the patient's arrival in the surgical intensive care unit after coronary artery bypass graft surgery.MethodsA matched retrospective cohort study was performed including 412 consecutive patients undergoing isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery between January 1996 and December 1997, constituting the experience of a single surgeon (J.H.L.). Early extubation (defined as extubation within 8 hours of arrival at the surgical intensive care unit) was achieved in 308 of 412 patients (75%). Patients extubated in fewer than 4 hours after arrival (n = 200) were compared with patients extubated within 4 to 8 hours (n = 108).ResultsFour deaths occurred in 412 patients, for an overall operative mortality rate of 1.0%. Patients extubated in fewer than 4 hours were younger than those extubated 4 or more hours after admission (62 versus 67 years old, respectively; p = 0.001), more likely to be male (74% versus 63%, p < 0.05), and had shorter aortic cross-clamp times (49.4 +/- 15.0 versus 53.5 +/- 14.0 minutes, p < 0.05) and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) times (65.2 +/- 18.6 versus 72.1 +/- 19.1 minutes, p < 0.05) compared to patients extubated later. Moreover, patients extubated in fewer than 4 hours had a shorter surgical intensive care unit length of stay (33.8 +/- 25.7 versus 43.1 +/- 43.0 hours, p < 0.05) and shorter postoperative length of stay (5.4 +/- 2.4 versus 6.2 +/- 2.6 days, p = 0.01) than those extubated later.ConclusionsExtubation in fewer than 4 hours may offer a substantial advantage in terms of accelerated recovery compared with extubation within 4 to 8 hours. Very few differences in clinical parameters were noted between the two groups we studied, suggesting that efforts to reduce extubation times further might be worthwhile.
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