Hemorrhage after coronary artery bypass graft procedures.

Objectives: To identify risk factors for excessive bleeding after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) procedures and to quantify the outcomes related to this complication.

Design: We conducted a case-control study to identify risk factors for hemorrhage following CABG surgery and a historical cohort study to quantify outcomes of hemorrhage.

Setting: The cardiothoracic surgery service of a university hospital.

The epidemiology of hemorrhage related to cardiothoracic operations.

Objective: To define the epidemiology, risk factors, and unadjusted cost of hemorrhages related to cardiothoracic operations.

Study Design: We conducted two case-control studies to evaluate the risk of hemorrhage following cardiothoracic operations. The definition of hemorrhage required one of the following: reoperation for bleeding, postoperative loss of greater than 800 mL of blood over 4 hours, or surgeon-diagnosed excessive intraoperative bleeding.

Designing surveillance for noninfectious outcomes of medical care.

We present basic information that a hospital epidemiologist needs when designing a surveillance system for noninfectious adverse outcomes of care. Specific topics reflect key characteristics of such a surveillance system: the purpose, rationale, priorities, definitions, data collection tools, data collection, analysis and reporting, and validation.