Accelerated recovery after cardiac operations.
BACKGROUND
The accelerated-recovery approach, involving early extubation, early mobility, decreased duration of intensive care unit stay, and decreased duration of hospitalization has recently become a controversial issue in cardiac surgery.


METHODS
We investigated timing of extubation, length of intensive care unit stay, and duration of hospitalization in 225 consecutive cardiac surgery patients. Of the 225 patients, 139 were male and 86 were female; average age was 49.73 +/- 16.95 years. Coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 127 patients; 65 patients underwent aortic and/or mitral or pulmonary valvular operations; 5 patients underwent valvular plus coronary artery operations; and in 28 patients surgical interventions for congenital anomalies were carried out.


RESULTS
The accelerated-recovery approach could be applied in 169 of the 225 cases (75.11%). Accelerated-recovery patients were extubated after an average of 3.97 +/- 1.59 hours, and the average duration of stay in the intensive care unit was 20.93 +/- 2.44 hours for these patients. Patients were discharged if they met all of the following criteria: hemodynamic stability, cooperativeness, ability to initiate walking exercises within wards, lack of pathology in laboratory investigations, and psychological readiness for discharge. Mean duration of hospitalization for accelerated-recovery patients was 4.24 +/- 0.75 days. Two patients (1.18%) who were extubated within the first 6 hours required reintubation. Four patients (2.36%) who were sent to the wards returned to intensive care unit due to various reasons and 6 (3.55%) of the discharged patients were rehospitalized.


CONCLUSIONS
Approaches for decreasing duration of intubation, intensive care unit stay and hospitalization may be applied in elective and uncomplicated cardiac surgical interventions with short duration of aortic cross-clamping and cardiopulmonary bypass, without risking patients. Frequencies of reintubation, return to intensive care unit, and rehospitalization are quite low with this approach.
Kaplan
Mehmet
M
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Siyami Ersek Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Center, 67 Ada Kardelen 4-4, D:11 Atasehir-81120, Istanbul, Turkey. mehmetkaplan@superonline.com
Kut
Mustafa Sinan
MS
Yurtseven
Nurgul
N
Cimen
Serdar
S
Demirtas
Mahmut Murat
MM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors