Impact of Embolization During Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting on Outcome and Length of Stay

Background. Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography detects emboli in most patients during coronary artery bypass grafting. However, the significance of these emboli has not yet been established. Methods. We monitored 82 patients during coronary artery bypass grafting with this technique and related the numbers of emboli to the outcomes and length of hospital stay. Results. We detected cerebral emboli in all patients. Patients with stroke (n = 4; 4.9%) had a mean of 449 emboli, as compared with 169 emboli in patients without stroke (n = 78) (p = 0.005). Patients with major cardiac complications (n = 7) had a mean of 392 emboli, as compared with 163 in patients without such complications (n = 75) (p = 0.003). The mean hospital stay of survivors was 8.6 days in patients with fewer than 100 emboli (n = 40), 13.5 days in patients with 101 to 300 emboli (n = 23), 16.3 days in those with 301 to 500 emboli (n = 16), and 55.8 days in patients with more than 500 emboli (n = 6) (p = 0.0007). This relation was unchanged when patients with complications were excluded. The correlation between embolization and outcome was independent of the extent of aortic atheroma or age. Conclusions. Emboli detected during coronary artery bypass grafting are significantly related to major cardiac and neurologic complications and affect length of stay in all patients, even in the absence of such specific complications. (Ann Thorac Surg 1997;63:998–1002)