Five-year experience with cardiac surgery procedures in dialysis-dependent patients

The purpose of this study was to review the outcome of dialysis-dependent patients undergoing cardiac surgery. We retrospectively reviewed 36 dialysis-dependent patients with a mean age of 63 ± 9.4 years who underwent cardiac operations. Surgery included coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in 27 patients (75%), valve surgery in 2 (5.5%), combined CABG plus valve surgery in 5 (13.8%), combined valve surgery and MAZE procedure in 1 patient, combined valve surgery, CABG and MAZE procedure in 1 patient, major aortic surgery in 1 patient, suture of injured right ventricle in 1 patient and extirpation of infected right atrial thrombus in 1 patient. In-hospital mortality rate was 11.1%. All the deaths occurred in patients who underwent urgent procedure. Two of the deaths occurred in patients who underwent cardiac surgery procedure on pump (ascending aorta replacement and infected thrombus removing), one death occurred in a patient who underwent suture of injured right ventricle and another one death occurred in patient who underwent the conventional myocardial revascularization. The survival was 77.8% at 1 year. Generally suggested predictors of increased late mortality are heart failure, urgent/emergent surgery, the complexity of the surgical procedures (valve surgery, combined CABG, valve and major aortic surgery) and postoperative low cardiac output syndrome. In dialysis-dependent patients, CABG has an acceptable risk. Results in patients affected by valve lesions associated or not with coronary artery disease are improved by an early referral to surgery, before the onset of symptoms of heart failure.