Hypotension after intensive care unit drop-off in adult cardiac surgery patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hypotension is a frequent complication in the intensive care unit (ICU) after adult cardiac surgery. AIM: To describe frequency of hypotension in the ICU following adult cardiac surgery and its relation to the hospital outcomes. METHODS: A retrospective study of post-cardiac adult surgical patients at a tertiary academic medical center in a two-year period. We abstracted baseline demographics, comorbidities, and all pertinent clinical variables. The primary predictor variable was the development of hypotension within the first 30 min upon arrival to the ICU from the operating room (OR). The primary outcome was hospital mortality, and other outcomes included duration of mechanical ventilation (MV) in hours, and ICU and hospital length of stay in days. RESULTS: < 0.001, for all). CONCLUSION: Hypotension upon anesthesia-to-ICU drop-off is more frequent than previously reported and may be associated with adverse clinical outcomes.