Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life after Coronary Revascularization

Quality of life in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention--radial versus femoral access (from the OCEAN RACE Trial)

Numerous studies have compared transradial (TR) versus transfemoral (TF) access for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. These studies have focused on clinical efficacy and safety; yet little is known about the effect of the vessel access on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL). In the present study, patients were randomly assigned to TR (n = 52) or TF (n = 51) access groups. Generic (EQ-5D-3L) and cardiac-specific (Quality of Life Index and MacNew) tools were used to assess HRQoL before PCI and 2 hours and 4 days after PCI. Baseline HRQoL was comparable in both groups and improved after PCI. The mean ± SD EQ-5D-3L health utility score 2 hours after PCI was 0.46 ± 0.291 and was higher in the TR group (TR: 0.60 ± 0.299 versus TF: 0.32 ± 0.283, p <0.001). Patients in the TR group reported fewer problems with mobility (TR: 71.7% vs TF: 94.4%, p <0.01) and self-care (TR: 62.5% vs TF: 97.2%, p <0.001). At day 4, fewer patients reported problems with anxiety and/or depression in the TR group than in the TF group (TR: 42.9% vs TF: 75.0%, p <0.001); no differences between groups in other measures were observed (Quality of Life Index and MacNew). The N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide levels were inversely correlated with EQ-5D-3L visual analog scale (r = -0.348, p <0.05) and EQ-5D-3L health utility score (r = -0.322, p <0.05). There was a correlation between in-hospital mortality and 2 MacNew domains: physical (r = -0.329, p <0.05) and emotional (r = -0.374, p <0.01). In conclusion, radial access should be the preferred approach in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing PCI when considering HRQoL. Radial access is associated with fewer problems with mobility and self-care and better psychological outcome after PCI.

Patients' recovery after critical illness at early follow-up

AIM

To determine the quality of life, particularly physical function, of intensive care survivors during the early recovery process.

BACKGROUND

Survivors of critical illness face ongoing challenges after discharge from the intensive care unit and on returning home. Knowledge about health issues during early phases of recovery after hospital discharge is emerging, yet still limited.

DESIGN

Descriptive study where the former critically ill patients completed instruments on general health and quality of life (SF-36) in the first six months of recovery.

METHODS

Participants responded to the SF-36 questionnaire and questions about problems, one to six months after intensive care, either face-to-face or by telephone.

RESULTS

Thirty-nine participants had a mean age of 60 years; of them, 59% were men and had been in intensive care for 1-69 days (median = 5). Most participants (69%) rated their health as good or fair, but 54% rated general health as worse than a year ago. Mean quality of life scores for all scales ranged from 25-65.5%, with particularly low scores for Role-Physical (25) and Pain (45.1). Half the participants reported difficulty with mobility, sleep and concentration, and 72% that their responsibilities at home had changed. No relationships were found between SF-36 scores and admission diagnosis, gender, age or length of intensive care stay.

CONCLUSIONS

These survivors of critical illness and hospitalisation in an intensive care unit perceive their general health to be good despite experiencing significant physical limitations and disturbed sleep during recovery.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Knowledge of issues in these early phases of recovery and discussion and resolution of patient problems could normalise the experience for the patient and help to facilitate better quality of life.

Effectiveness and safety of total endoscopic left internal mammary artery bypass graft to the left anterior descending artery

Totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has become a feasible option using robotic technology and remote access perfusion techniques. The aim of this study was to determine the progression of the procedure's performance in the currently largest single-center series of arrested-heart totally endoscopic CABG. From 2001 to 2007, arrested-heart totally endoscopic CABG was performed in 100 patients (median age 59 years, range 46 to 70; 81 men, 19 women). All patients received left internal mammary artery grafts to the left anterior descending artery using the da Vinci Surgical System. Remote-access femoral perfusion and aortic balloon endo-occlusion were used in all patients. The series was divided into 4 phases: phase 1 (patients 1 to 25), phase 2 (patients 26 to 50), phase 3 (patients 51 to 75), and phase 4 (patients 76 to 100). The conversion rates to larger thoracic incisions were 7 of 25 (28%) in phase 1, 2 of 25 (8%) in phase 2, 1 of 25 (4%) in phase 3, and 1 of 25 (4%) in phase 4 (p = 0.018). Operative times and hospital stays decreased significantly with each subsequent phase, and clinical outcome showed corresponding improvements. There was no perioperative mortality. For the whole patient series, 5-year postoperative survival, freedom from angina, and freedom from major adverse cardiac and cerebral events were 100%, 91%, and 89%, respectively. In conclusion, after an initial steep learning curve, completely endoscopic left internal mammary artery-to-left anterior descending CABG can be performed safely, with low conversion rates. The learning curve for operative times and improvements in clinical outcome continued even at 100 procedures.

The health-related quality of life trajectory in patients after percutaneous coronary intervention

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to describe the trajectory of cardiac patient's perceptions of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) during a 24-month period in a community-based population.

METHODS

After obtaining informed consent, a self-administered questionnaire was mailed to participants. Using the MacNew questionnaire, which assesses the emotional, physical, social, and global domains, HRQoL outcomes were assessed.

RESULTS

Completed questionnaires were received from 202 participants (75%). Improvements in the emotional, physical, social, and global HRQoL scores were observed until 15 to 17 months after the index percutaneous coronary intervention, after which a decline was observed. However, the scores in all HRQoL domains remained high when compared with the scores at 12 months. No clinical or sociodemographic predictors for HRQoL were identified.

CONCLUSIONS

The information obtained from this study will enable clinicians to further understand the process of recovery and adjustment of patients after percutaneous coronary intervention and the development of tailored strategies for patient management.

Myocardial enzyme release in totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting on the arrested heart

OBJECTIVE

Robotic totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting enables coronary artery bypass grafting without sternotomy or thoracotomy. However, longer cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic endo-occlusion times are currently required compared with those of standard coronary artery bypass grafting operations. We investigated whether longer operation times affect the myocardial enzyme release and the postoperative course.

METHODS

From 2001 through 2006, 85 patients with a median age of 58 years (range, 31-76 years) underwent totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting on the arrested heart by using the da Vinci telemanipulator and remote access perfusion through the femoral vessels (Estech or Heartport). The operations involved the left internal thoracic artery-left anterior descending coronary artery or diagonal branch (n = 74); right internal thoracic artery-right coronary artery (n = 2); double-vessel left internal thoracic artery-obtuse marginal branch/circumflex artery and right internal thoracic artery-left anterior descending coronary artery (n = 8); and double-vessel left internal thoracic artery-left anterior descending coronary artery and saphenous vein graft-right coronary artery (n = 1). Totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting duration was 254 minutes (range, 178-710 minutes), cardiopulmonary bypass time was 114 minutes (range, 57-428 minutes), and aortic endo-occlusion time was 65 minutes (range, 28-230 minutes).

RESULTS

The postoperative ventilation time was 8 hours (range, 0-278 hours), and the intensive care unit stay was 20 hours (range, 11-389 hours). The postoperative stay at our department was 6 days (range, 4-22 days), and we observed no hospital deaths in this series. Forty-five percent of the patients had an increased postoperative peak creatine kinase MB level, and 75% had an increased troponin T level. Postoperative peak creatine kinase MB levels significantly increased with totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting duration (r = 0.588, P < .001), cardiopulmonary bypass time (r = 0.521, P < .001), and aortic endo-occlusion time (r = 0.400, P < .001) and translated into moderately prolonged intensive care unit stay (r = 0.432, P < .001) and ventilation time (r = 0.517, P < .001). Creatine kinase MB levels were not associated with sex, age, or EuroSCORE. The postoperative left ventricular ejection fraction did not differ significantly from the preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction.

CONCLUSIONS

Myocardial protection can be established in arrested heart totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting operations. An influence of increased myocardial enzyme release on postoperative ventilation time and intensive care unit stay is detectable but does not translate into an early mortality or a decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction.

Present status of known and possible outcomes in neurosurgery: a survey of outcome assessment

OBJECTIVES

In the area of health care research, quality of life (QoL) is considered as a diagnostic tool for problem-oriented care of postoperative cancer patients. The aim of this study was to assess the attitude of neurosurgeons towards the different outcome measurements.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This prospective study was conducted between the 15(th) and 18th of June 2005 during the third world conference of the International Study Group on Neuroendoscopy (ISGNE) in Marburg, Germany. Copies of the questionnaire that was generated for this purpose were distributed to the participants from all over the world. Respondents were asked to return the completed questionnaire to the registration/information desk. The acquired data from the questionnaires were transferred to Excel spreadsheet. Only data from completely filled out questionnaires were included in the descriptive and explorative analysis.

RESULTS

Forty of the 150 questionnaires that were distributed were complete without missing values and mistakes. Data from these 40 questionnaires were used for analysis. Sixty eight percent (27:40) of the neurosurgeons considered mortality as the first or the second rank of outcome measurement, whereas morbidity was also found to be the other important outcome measurement (the first or the second rank of outcome measurement) in 45% (18:40) of the neurosurgeons. Improved QoL was considered as the third or the fourth priority of outcome measurement in 53% (22:40) of the respondents. Although from these data, it may be difficult to infer that there is a real transfer of QoL concept from the scientific theory and the measurement level into clinical application. However, this may reflect a change in attitude of the surgeon.

CONCLUSION

Besides disseminating new QoL concepts through publication and information technology, an implementation of this contemporary concept would provide a postoperative neurosurgical patient an optimal and rapid therapy according to the disclosed problems in the somatic, psychological, and social domains. Therefore, a QoL profile that can be used in each group of neurosurgical patient should be created.

Living with off-pump coronary artery surgery: evolution, development, and clinical potential for coronary heart disease patients

The enormous progress in interventional cardiology during the last 10 years has resulted in a major change in the spectrum of patients referred for coronary bypass surgery. These patients are older and sicker and frequently have had previous percutaneous coronary interventions. Consequently, cardiac surgery is responding by adding new surgical techniques: off-pump open-chest coronary bypass surgery (OPCAB), minithoracotomy bypass surgery, videothoracoscopic (robotic) procedures, etc. Several registries published to date have proved OPCAB to be safe and clinically effective. Randomized studies and meta-analysis research in this field provide scientific support and suggest that myocardial, renal, and neurological functions, amongst others, are better preserved by OPCAB than by classic techniques that use a cardiopulmonary bypass pump (CPB). Moreover, avoidance of CPB yields significantly reduced oxidative stress and systemic inflammatory response. This results in higher safety for ischemic heart disease patients undergoing revascularization, thus offsetting the propensity to lower costs. The present review examines the physiological advantages and clinical outcomes of this simple mode of myocardial revascularisation and evaluates the wider implications arising from its evolution.

Robotically assisted totally endoscopic atrial septal defect repair: insights from operative times, learning curves, and clinical outcome

BACKGROUND

Remote access perfusion and robotics have enabled totally endoscopic closure of atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale. The aim of this study was to address learning curve issues of totally endoscopic atrial septal defect repair on the basis of a single-center experience and to investigate whether long cardiopulmonary bypass and aortic occlusion times influence intraoperative and postoperative outcomes.

METHODS

Seventeen patients (median age, 35 years; range, 16 to 55 years) underwent totally endoscopic atrial septal defect repair using remote access perfusion and robotic technology (da Vinci telemanipulation system). Learning curves were assessed by means of regression analysis with logarithmic curve fit. The effect of operative variables on clinical outcome was analyzed by linear regression using the Spearman's rho coefficient.

RESULTS

No operative mortality or serious surgical complications were observed. No residual shunt was detected at intraoperative or postoperative echocardiography. Significant learning curves were noted for total operative time: y(min) = 406 - 49 ln(x) (r2 = 0.725; p = 0.002); cardiopulmonary bypass time: y(min) = 225 - 42 ln(x) (r2 = 0.699; p = 0.003); and aortic occlusion time: y(min) = 117 - 25 ln(x) (r2 = 0.517; p = 0.04), x = number of procedures. Median ventilation time, intensive care unit stay, and hospital length of stay were 7 hours (range, 2 to 19 hours), 26 hours (range, 15 to 120 hours), and 8 days (range, 5 to 14 days), respectively. No correlation was detected between cardiopulmonary bypass time and intubation time (r2 = 0.283; p = 0.326), intensive care unit stay (r2 = -0.138; p = 0.639), or total length of stay (r2 = 0.013; p = 0.962).

CONCLUSIONS

Totally endoscopic atrial septal defect repair can be performed safely, and learning curves for operative times are steep. Longer cardiopulmonary bypass times had no negative impact on intraoperative and postoperative outcome.