Postoperative outcomes of cardio-thoracic surgery in post-COVID versus non-COVID patients - Single-center experience

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the postoperative outcomes in post COVID versus non-COVID patients undergone cardiac surgery. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study to analyze the impact of COVID-19 in patients undergoing elective or emergency cardiac surgeries. A total of 512 patients were included in the study over a period of 6 months. The study consists of 35 post-COVID patients and 477 non-COVID patients. All data were collected from previous medical records and hospital database. The clinical outcomes and mortality of post-COVID patients were compared with a cohort of non-COVID patients. The endpoints were compared using t-test or Chi-squared test. Results: Among the post-COVID patients, 54.3% (19) of the post-COVID patients were under COVID category A followed by category B 28.6% (10) and category C 17.1% (6). About 50% of post-COVID patients had complications, especially pneumonia and myocardial infarction following COVID-19. Around 43% of patients showed fibrotic changes in computed tomography (CT) Thorax at the time of admission for surgery. 63% showed CT score in between 1 and 5. The mean COVID antibody titer was 158 U/ml. Majority of the surgeries were coronary artery bypass graft and significant difference was observed in the requirement of intra-aortic balloon pump in post-COVID patients (P < 0.0001). No postoperative mortality reported in post-COVID patients. The postoperative outcomes and survival rates were almost similar in both groups. Conclusion: In our study, the post-COVID patients were recover in a similar way as non-COVID patients after cardiac surgery.