• Sandip Nandhra, Luke Boylan, James Prentis, Craig Nesbitt, and Northern Vascular Centre.
• Northern Vascular Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK; Population Health Sciences Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Electronic address: Sandip.nandhra@nuth.nhs.uk.
• Ann Vasc Surg. 2020 Jul 1; 66: 586-594.

BackgroundAnemia is associated with greater mortality and complications in cardiovascular surgery. Within chronic limb-threatening ischemia, the effect of anemia is becoming apparent. This study aimed to further understand the influence of anemia in patients undergoing surgical revascularization for lower limb ischemia.MethodsA retrospective review of all patients undergoing infrainguinal surgical revascularization between 2016 and 2018 at a tertiary center was performed. Anemia was defined as an hemoglobin (Hb) level of less than 120 g/L. The primary outcome was overall survival by the Kaplan-Meier analysis. Secondary outcomes included length of hospital stay, blood transfusion requirements, wound infection, myocardial infarction, and limb-loss and all-cause mortality. The Cox proportional-hazard analysis and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were performed.ResultsA total of 124 patients were followed-up for a mean of 23(8) months. Forty-five patients were anemic. There were comparable baseline demographics, comorbidity, and severity of symptoms. Overall survival was significantly worse (logrank P < 0.01) in the anemic group as was the duration of stay, 27 (23) days vs. 14 (16) days (P = 0.001). Patients with anemia received more blood transfusions, 19 (42%) compared with 13 (16.5%) (P = 0.001), and had more cardiac complications (11.1% vs. 3.8%) (P = 0.02). Surgical site infection rates were also higher (20% vs. 6.3%; P = 0.036). There was no difference in graft patency or subsequent ipsilateral major lower extremity amputation. Thirty-day mortality was comparable between the anemic versus the nonanaemic groups, 3 (6.7%) vs. 1 (1.3%) (P = 0.132). At 1 year, there was a higher mortality rate in the anemic group of 8 (18%) vs. 4 (5%) in the nonanaemic group (P = 0.037), which persisted to the long term. Anemia was independently associated with mortality; hazard ratio 4.0 (1.14-12.1). A 'cut-off' Hb level of 112 g/L was identified by ROC analysis.ConclusionsPreoperative anemia in infrainguinal bypass surgery has a significant association with mortality and morbidity. Preoperative anemia should prompt the vascular team to consider these patients as high risk and consider optimization of Hb.Crown Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

36 keywords...

hide…