Individual Surgeon's Impact on the Risk of Re-exploration for Excessive Bleeding After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Objective Excessive bleeding requiring re-exploration is a severe complication that may affect the outcome after coronary artery bypass grafting. The authors hypothesized that surgeon performance may contribute significantly to such a complication. Design Retrospective. Setting Tertiary referral center in a university hospital. Participants Two thousand one patients. Interventions Isolated coronary artery bypass grafting. Results Re-exploration for bleeding was performed in 113 patients (5.3%). Re-exploration was performed ≥3 days after surgery in 11 patients. The surgical site of bleeding was identified in 83 patients (73.5%). Rates of re-exploration for excessive bleeding ranged from 1.4% to 11.7% according to different surgeons ( p p 2 (OR 2.733, 95% CI 2.145-3.481), and estimated glomerular filtration rate 2 (OR 3.891, 95% CI 1.669-9.076) were independent predictors of re-exploration for excessive bleeding. An individual surgeon also was an independent predictor of a postoperative blood loss ≥1,600 mL. Conclusions An individual surgeon has a major impact on postoperative bleeding, and a meticulous surgical technique is expected to decrease significantly such a severe complication.