Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation as a Predictor of Mortality After Cardiac Surgery.

Background: Mortality among the small percentage of cardiac surgery patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation is high, but this issue appears to be inadequately addressed in guidelines.

Methods: This study is a retrospective analysis of prospective, multi-center, and observational study in Spain including all adults undergoing cardiac surgery in 3 Andalusian hospitals between June 2008 and December 2012.

Results: The study included 3,588 adults with mean ± SD age of 63.