SATS 2009 Final Program - Scandinavian Association for Thoracic ...

P01:24
HOW DOES INTRAOPERATIVE ASSESSMENT OF DISTAL LAD DISEASE TRANSLATE INTO
CLINICAL OUTCOME?
Svedjeholm Rolf 1 , Vanky Farkas 1
1) Linköping University Hospital, Sweden
Objective
It is generally appreciated that the quality of coronary vessels are important for successful revascularization.
Intraoperative assessment of coronary vessel quality by inspection, palpation and probing is routinely performed. It
is questionable to what extent an assessment subject to investigator bias translates into clinical outcome. As our
institutional database contained information about intraoperative assessment of quality of distal LAD we decided
to investigate this issue.
Method
Data were registered prospectively in a computerized institutional database. 1751 patients had calcification of
distal LAD classified by the surgeon as none, mild, moderate or severe. In 1034 patients it was classified as none
or mild (Group NM) and in 234 patients it was classified as severe (Group S). These groups were compared with
regard to outcome.
Results
Average age did not differ between Group S (65±1 years) and Group NM (66±1 years) but the proportion of
patients with diabetes (28.2% v 15.3%; p