title: Early and medium-term results after on-pump and off-pump coronary artery surgery: a propensity score analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Comparative publications on beating-heart off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB) surgery versus conventional coronary artery bypass grafting (CCAB) surgery frequently do not offer conclusive information because of investigator bias.
  
  
  METHODS
  Trying to eliminate this problem, a propensity score analysis of the data of all CCAB patients (n = 517) and OPCAB patients (n = 133) operated on by the same surgeons during the same time period (1998 to 2001) was applied. After matching patients with similar propensity score values, 97 CCAB patients and 72 OPCAB patients entered the final analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Early results were similar in both groups: the 30-day mortality reached 1.4% in the CCAB group and 2.8% in the OPCAB group; strokes did not happen. Perioperative myocardial infarctions occurred in 4.1% of the CCAB patients and 4.3% of the OPCAB patients. Drainage blood loss in the first 24 hours after surgery (830 +/- 687 mL, CCAB group; and 909 +/- 678 mL, OPCAB group) was similar (p = 0.06) in both groups. Medium term results (freedom from percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or reoperation, freedom from myocardial infarction, freedom from stroke, and the quality of life) also were not significantly different between the off-pump and on-pump groups after a mean follow-up of 27 +/- 11 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that elective-surgery patients with coronary artery disease can be operated on either on-pump or off-pump with the same early and late mortality and morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital, Kiel, Germany. aboening@kielheart.uni-kiel.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boening
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Friedrich
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hedderich
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schoettler
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fraund
authors.forename: Jochen T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Cremer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D011788:Quality of Life