Death Post-CABG Higher in Diabetics

Death shortly after coronary arterybypass graft surgery is more prevalent inindividuals with type 2 diabetes, evenwhen a number of risk factors are takeninto account. Reporting the findings inChest (December 2004), the researchersfollowed >6700 patients whounderwent coronary artery bypass grafting.One third of the participants hadtype 2 diabetes.

A month after surgery, the mortalityrate was 3.9% among patients with diabetes,compared with 2.6% for participantswithout diabetes. Even with adjustmentsfor other risk factors calculated,the diabetic group had a 67% highermortality risk.

The results of the study also revealedthat patients with diabetes had longerhospital stays, experienced more kidneyand wound complications, and had moreepisodes when their heart's pumpingstrength dropped.