Cardiovascular surgery in chronic hemodialysis patients

Renal failure increases the morbidity and mortality of patients undergoing cardiac surgery. To investigate the adequacy of perioperative management and intraoperative techniques for cardiac operations, we retrospectively analyzed data from 25 patients (4 women and 21 men, with a mean age of 57.4 ± 7.7 years) with chronic renal failure who underwent cardiovascular surgery. The hospital mortality rate was 8.0%. Eleven postoperative complications were observed in 25 patients. The main complications were low cardiac output syndrome (with intraaortic balloon pump insertion in 4 cases), postoperative gastrointestinal tract bleeding (3 cases), and mediastinitis (2 cases). These results demonstrate that preoperative chronic renal failure increases mortality and morbidity; however, good operative outcome can be obtained with careful perioperative management.