Preoperative clinical status but not waiting time predicts in-hospital outcomes of surgery in patients with left main coronary artery stenosis

Contoversy exists about the optimal operation time of the patients with left main coronary artery (LMCA) stenosis. We therefore, aimed to investigate the effect of waiting time on in-hospital morbidity and mortality in patients with LMCA stenosis and identify the risk factors associated with adverse cardiovascular events before and during surgery. One hundred seventy six patients with LMCA stenosis were divided into two groups according to the time period between coronary angiography and coronary artery bypass surgery (group 1: 7 days, 94 patients; and group 2: > 7 days, 82 patients). Primary end points were death and major adverse cardiac event (MACE): in-hospital death, sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation development, postoperative stay in the intensive care > 48 hrs and in hospital > 9 days. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients in groups 1 and 2 were comparable. There was no difference between the two groups in terms of in-hospital morbidity, mortality and MACE. When we analyzed the differences between the patients with and without MACE, the patients who experienced MACE were older (p = 0.001), and had higher degree of LMCA stenosis (p = 0.01), higher degree of right coronary artery stenosis (p = 0.02), higher blood urea level (p = 0.003), and higher incidence of unstable angina or myocardial infarction within 2 weeks (p = 0.001). Independent risk factors for MACE were unstable angina or myocardial infarction within 2 weeks, age more than 70 years and stenosis more than 75% in the LMCA. These results suggest that preoperative clinical status but not waiting time predicts in-hospital surgical outcomes in LMCA stenosis.