Trend and early clinical outcomes of off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting in the UK.

OBJECTIVES

The popularity of off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) varies across the world, ranging from 20% in Europe and the USA to 56% in Asia. We present the trend and early clinical outcomes in off pump in the UK.

METHODS

All patients who underwent elective or urgent isolated CABG from 1996 to 2019 were extracted from the National Adult Cardiac Surgery Audit database. The trend in operating surgeons and units volume and training in off pump were analysed. Early clinical outcomes between off- and on-pump CABG were compared using propensity score matching.

RESULTS

A total of 351 422 patients were included. The overall off-pump rate during the study period was 15.17%, it peaked in 2008 (19.8%), followed by a steady decreased to 2018 (7.63%). Its adoption varied across centres and surgeons, ranging from <1% to 48.36% and <1% to 85.5%, respectively, of total cases performed. After propensity score matching for the period 1996-2019, off pump, when compared to on pump, was associated with a lower in-hospital/30-day mortality (1.2% vs 1.5%, P < 0.001), return to theatre (3.7% vs 4.5%, P < 0.001), cerebrovascular accident (transient ischaemic attack: 0.3% vs 0.6%, stroke: 0.3% vs 0.6%, P < 0.001) and deep sternal wound infection (0.8% vs 1.2%, P ≤ 0.001). In a sub-analysis from the introduction of EuroScore II (2012-2019), there were no differences in-hospital/30-day mortality (1.0% vs 1.0%, P = 0.71). However, on pump, had a higher return to theatre (4.2% vs 2.7%, P < 0.001), cerebrovascular accident (transient ischaemic attack: 0.4% vs 0.2%, stroke: 0.5% vs 0.3%, P = 0.003) and deep sternal wound infection (1.0% vs 0.6%, P = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

Our data show a decreasing trend in the use of off pump in the UK since 2008. This is likely to be multifactorial and raises the question of whether it should be a specialized revascularization technique.