On-pump versus off-pump surgical revascularization in patients with acute coronary syndromes: Analysis from the Acute Catheterization and Urgent Intervention Triage Strategy trial

ObjectiveEarly invasive strategy, defined as early coronary angiography and subsequent revascularization, when appropriate, is recommended by current guidelines for the management of patients with moderate- to high-risk acute coronary syndromes. We sought to compare the outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing surgical revascularization with an on-pump versus off-pump approach.MethodsAmong a total of 13,819 patients with moderate- to high-risk acute coronary syndromes enrolled in the Acute Catheterization and Urgent Intervention Triage Strategy trial, 1375 patients were triaged to isolated coronary artery bypass grafting. One thousand one hundred fifty-four patients underwent operations with cardiopulmonary bypass (the coronary artery bypass grafting group), and 221 patients underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (the off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting group). Propensity score matching (1:3) was applied to adjust for differences in baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics, yielding a total of 880 matched patients with acute coronary syndromes (220 managed with off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and 660 managed with coronary artery bypass grafting).ResultsAt 30 days, patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting had fewer events of bleeding (43.7% vs 56.3%, P = .0005) and myocardial infarction (7.3% vs 12.1%, P = .055) but higher rates of reintervention (3.7% vs 1.2%, P = .02). At 1 year, there was no difference between groups in death, total myocardial infarctions, reinterventions, strokes, or major adverse cardiac events, but there was a lower rate of non–Q-wave myocardial infarctions in the off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting group (4.6% vs 9.2%, P = .03).ConclusionsIn this large-scale study evaluating the outcomes of patients with acute coronary syndromes, off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting was associated with lower rates of bleeding and non–Q-wave myocardial infarction but more reinterventions early after the procedure. At 1 year, there was no major outcome difference between the 2 surgical strategies.