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Black patients with PAD at higher risk for death following CABG
Risk for death after CABG surgery appears to be higher among black patients with peripheral arterial disease than white patients with peripheral arterial disease, according to results from a retrospective cohort study.
Jimmy T. Efird, PhD, MSc, from East Carolina University, and colleagues examined the effect of race on long-term survival following CABG surgery using data from the STS National Database. The researchers analyzed medical records for 13,053 patients who underwent first-time, isolated CABG at the East Carolina Heart Institute from 1992 to 2011. Overall, 11% of patients (311 black, 1,190 white) had PAD at the time of surgery. Median follow-up was 8.3 years.
Jimmy T. Efird
Median survival for patients with PAD was 9.2 years compared with 15 years for patients without PAD. White patients with PAD had a median survival of 9.5 years; however, the median survival was 8 years for black patients with PAD, according to a press release.
“In an era of personalized medicine and increased focus on quality, one of the ways in which we can significantly improve health care is to critically examine long-term outcomes in different populations in order to narrow the racial disparity gap that we know exists in medicine,” Alan P. Kypson, MD, also from East Carolina University, said in the release.
Alan P. Kypson
“Our results highlight that the quality and quantity of health care should be extended to all groups for improved overall health and maximization of long-term survival after CABG surgery. We recommend that cardiothoracic surgeons and cardiologists continue to closely monitor black patients with PAD after CABG surgery with an understanding that they have an increased long-term risk of death compared with white patients,” Efird stated.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.