Does the duration of surgery affect outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting?

Background Numerous predictors of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) outcomes have been identified. We aimed to determine whether the duration of surgery independently predicts outcome in patients undergoing CABG. Methods We retrospectively reviewed data from 337 patients (mean age 62 ± 7 years) who underwent CABG consecutively at our institution between January 2005 and December 2006. Results Duration of surgery correlated positively with length of both surgical intensive care unit (SICU) stay (r = .147, P = .004) and ventilator support (r = .097, P = .038) in univariate analysis, but only with length of SICU stay (P = .01) in a multivariate logistic regression after confounding factors were controlled for in the model. The regression coefficient was .006; every additional 30 minutes of surgery time was associated with 4.32 more hours of SICU stay. Duration of surgery was not associated with survival (P > .05). Conclusions Although duration of surgery did not affect short-term survival after CABG, surgical duration independently predicted length of SICU stays. Efforts to reduce the length of operations may promote more efficient use of hospital resources.