Study finds women at higher risk than men of operative mortality after coronary surgery
MONDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Women who undergo coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery have significantly higher operative mortality (OM) than men having the same surgery, according to a study in the Feb. 1 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.
Radhika Nandur Bukkapatnam, M.D., of the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, and colleagues used data from the California CABG Outcomes Reporting Program to compare OM in 10,708 women and 29,669 men undergoing isolated CABG at 121 hospitals in 2003 to 2004. The genders were also compared for demographic factors, clinical characteristics, and surgical outcomes.
The researchers found that mortality in women was 4.60 percent compared to 2.53 percent for men. In multivariate analysis, women had a higher risk of death than men (odds ratio, 1.61). In clinical comparisons, men were more likely than women to have more than three diseased coronary arteries and left ventricular dysfunction and to have a mammary artery graft, while women were more likely to have diabetes, stage 3 to 5 chronic kidney disease, and chronic lung disease; be undergoing a non-elective (emergency) CABG; and be older.
"Our results also suggest that women were more likely to present late for surgery as evidenced by the larger proportion of urgent and emergency acuity patients. This is consistent with a report that women have a fear of surgery, which may result in delayed referral for CABG," the authors write.
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