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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2007;32:77-82. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2007.03.045
Copyright © 2007, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Quality of life during 18 months after coronary artery bypass grafting

^a Department of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery; Vaasa Central Hospital, Vaasa, Finland
^b Department of Anaesthesiology, Vaasa Central Hospital, Vaasa, Finland
^c Department of Cardiology, Vaasa Central Hospital, Vaasa, Finland
^d Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Center, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
^e Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki Finland, and Finnohta, Helsinki, Finland
^f School of Public Health, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

Received 1 February 2007; received in revised form 20 March 2007; accepted 30 March 2007.

^_* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 50 527 3830. (Email: pertti.loponen{at}pp.inet.fi).

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the change in health related quality of life (HRQoL) among elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients. Methods: A total of 302 CABG patients were included in the study. Complete pre-, peri- and postoperative data were collected comprehensively in a database. HRQoL was measured by the 15D instrument. The 15D is a non-disease-specific, 15-dimensional, standardized and self-administered measure of HRQoL that can be used both as a profile and single index score measure. Baseline assessment was carried out before coronary angiography and assessment was repeated 6 and 18 months after surgery. Data were analysed by gender and in three age groups, i.e. patients <65 years, 65–74 years and 75 years. Results: Thirty day mortality was 1.0%, and the survival rate at 6 and 18 months was 99.0% and 96.7%, respectively. Preoperative HRQoL of CABG patients was lower in comparison to age- and gender-standardized Finnish population (P < 0.001). HRQoL of the patients improved significantly after CABG and the positive change lasted over the whole observation period, despite a slight decrease of 15D scores until 18 months. Although male patients had a higher preoperative HRQoL than women (P = 0.005), both genders benefited similarly from the operation. In the patients 75 years, the initial improvement of HRQoL returned to the preoperative level 18 months after the surgery. Conclusions: CABG patients experience a significant improvement in their HRQoL within 6 months after the operation and the effect remains through a mid-term observation time. However, expectations of improved HRQoL may have a limited value in decision making for surgery of coronary artery disease (CAD) for patients more than 75 years old.

Key Words: Coronary artery bypass • Quality of life • 15D • Elderly