Long-term survival of octogenarian patients submitted to isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Introduction: An increasing number of octogenarian patients is undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). The short-term results of this procedure have been broadly studied, but there are few national reports on long-term outcomes.

Objectives: To describe hospital mortality and long-term survival of patients aged > 80 years undergoing isolated CABG.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study with 142 consecutive patients aged > 80 years undergoing isolated CABG in the period between January/1996 and December/2007 in a Brazilian reference center. Mean age (± SD) was 82.3 ± 2.1 years, and 56.3% were male. The prevalence of hypertension was 73.2%, of previous myocardial infarction 30.3%, of diabetes 26.8%, and of renal dysfunction (creatinine ³ 2.0 mg/ml) was 4.9%. The median follow-up was 4.0 years, with a loss of 11.6% of patients. Survival analysis was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: Overall hospital mortality was 14.8% (95% CI: 8.8 to 20.8), with a reduction of this rate during the study period (1996-1999: 25.9%, 2000-2003: 15.8%, and 2004-2007: 8.6%). Mean survival was 6.5 years (95% CI: 5.5 to 7.5), and the survival rate at 1, 3 and 5 years was 79.4, 73.4 and 65.2%, respectively.

Conclusion: Results are in agreement with international reports. Mean survival was 6.5 years and the survival rate at 5 years was 65.2%.