Quality of life 10 years after cardiac surgery in adults: a long-term follow-up study

• Published in: Health and quality of life outcomes Vol. 17; no. 1; p. 88
• Main Authors: Perrotti, Andrea, Ecarnot, Fiona, Monaco, Francesco, Dorigo, Enrica, Monteleone, Palmiero, Besch, Guillaume, Chocron, Sidney
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 22.05.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adults; Aged; Analysis; Angina pectoris; Cardiac patients; Cardiac surgery; Cardiovascular disease; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Coronary artery; Coronary artery bypass; Coronary Artery Bypass - psychology; Coronary artery bypass graft; Coronary vessels; Demographic variables; Demographics; Diabetes mellitus; Female; Follow up; Follow-Up Studies; France; Health aspects; Heart; Heart surgery; Humans; Intervention; Life expectancy; Logistic Models; Male; Marital status; Medical research; Men; Mental depression; Mental health; Middle Aged; Mortality; Multivariate Analysis; Patients; Population; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Surgery; Thoracic surgery; Thorax; Time Factors; France; Follow up; Coronary artery bypass graft; Cardiac surgery; Quality of life
• ISSN: 1477-7525; 1477-7525
• DOI: 10.1186/s12955-019-1160-7

Quality of life (QoL) is a multifactorial concept that assesses physical and mental health. We prospectively studied the quality of life of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery using the Short-Form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36) up to 10 years after surgery. Between January 2000 and December 2002, all patients undergoing elective isolated CABG in the cardiac & thoracic surgery department of a large university hospital in Eastern France underwent initial QoL evaluation with the SF-36. The same questionnaire was mailed to every patient annually (± 2 weeks around the date of surgery) up to 10 years after their operation. We recorded socio-demographic and clinical variables at inclusion. Predictors of impaired QoL at 10 years were identified by logistic regression. A total of 272 patients (213 men, 59 women) were enrolled; mean age at inclusion was 65 ± 10 years. At 10 years post-surgery, 81 patients had died (29.7%). The physical component summary (PCS) score was significantly higher at 5 years after surgery than at baseline (p < 0.01), and significantly lower at 10 years than at 5 years (p < 0.01), although there remained a significant difference between 10-year PCS and baseline score (p = 0.004). The mental component summary (MCS) score was significantly higher at 5 years than at the time of surgery (p < 0.001), and remained significantly higher compared to baseline at 10 years after surgery (p = 0.010). By multivariate analysis, diabetes and dypsnea were both associated with worse PCS at 10 years, while lower age was associated with better 10-year PCS. Only diabetes was associated with impaired MCS at 10 years. Cardiac surgery appears to durably and positively affect both physical and mental components of quality of life.