Preoperative statin intake and morbid events after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of statins on morbidity and mortality in patients after isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). DESIGN: Observational cohort study. SETTING: Tertiary-care teaching hospital. MEASUREMENTS: Data from 2497 adult patients who underwent isolated CABG between January 2002 and June 2004 were studied. Patient characteristics and intraoperative variables were prospectively collected. End points were major morbid events and in-hospital mortality. A propensity score was estimated for each patient using logistic regression on the probability of statin use. Patients were also classified into 5 quintile groups according to their propensity score. Outcome variables were compared for propensity-matched pairs and quintile groups between those who received and did not receive statin therapy. MAIN RESULTS: Propensity matching resulted in a similar distribution of variables among the 654 matched pairs. Similar perioperative mortality was found between matched pairs with statin therapy vs no statin therapy, 5 (0.76%) and 8 (1.2%), (P = 0.40), respectively. Cardiac, neurologic, renal and respiratory morbidity, occurrence of atrial fibrillation, and length of hospital stay were similar between the matched pairs and among quintiles of propensity scores. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative statin intake did not reduce the frequency of major perioperative morbid events after isolated CABG.