OBJECTIVE: To compare clinical and surgical and clinical profiles of two group of patients submitted to Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) at Instituto de Cardiologia do RGS within a decade interval, define related hospital mortality and to validate a severity risk score for this populations. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study, including 307 CABG patients operated during six months of 1991/92 (n=153) and 2001/02 (n=154). Demographic characteristics, heart disease severity, co-morbidities and pre-operative events were evaluated and compared between groups. Hospital mortality and severity risk scores for mortality according to Cleveland Clinic were also assessed. RESULTS: Patients operated in 2001/02 were older, had more severe cardiac disease (increased NYHA functional class, prevalence of heart failure, and distribution of coronary diseased) and presented more co-morbidities than those operated in 1991/92. This patients required urgent surgery more often. The mean Cleveland Clinic severity risk score wasn't different between groups (2.8 + 3.1 in 1991/92 and 2.2 + 2.5 in 2001/02) and hospital mortality didn't present significant difference (3.3% and 1.9%, respectively). For Cleveland Clinic score 3 the predicted mortality was estimated as 2.0% (with confidence limit 95% of 0- 4.3%) and observed mortality for surgical patients of this institution was 3.4%. CONCLUSION: Patients submitted to CABG currently are older and in worse clinical conditions than those operated 10 years ago, but severity risk scores and hospital mortality were discretely increased for initial series of patients. This may be a consequent of a higher prevalence of urgent surgical indication in those patients. A severity risk score for hospital mortality can be used to predict surgical result and identify patients requiring specific care.
Heart surgery; myocardial revascularization; risk factors
