The Relationship Between Preoperative Anemia and Morbidity and Mortality in Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery

Objectives: Anemia is prevalent in the surgical population. Since anemia and blood transfusion are associated with increased mortality, optimizing patient blood management and treating anemia may improve patient outcomes. This study aims to determine the impact of preoperative anemia on postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing open-heart surgery.
Methods: Our prospective observational study included 200 patients scheduled for elective open-heart surgery, divided into two groups: 100 with preoperative anemia and 100 without. The two groups were compared in terms of morbidity and in-hospital mortality.
Results: In our study, postoperatively, sepsis was observed in 11% of the anemia group, acute kidney injury (AKI) in 22%, and cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in 4%, while in the control group, sepsis was observed in 4%, AKI in 15%, and CVD in 2%. No significant association was found between the incidence of sepsis, AKI, and CVD in the two groups. Mortality rates were 7% in the anemia group and 4% in the control group, indicating that anemia was not a decisive factor in mortality.
Conclusion: Although the duration of MV was longer in the preoperative anemia group, there was no difference in ICU and hospital stay durations. Despite higher incidences of sepsis, AKI, CVD, and mortality in the anemia group, anemia was not found to be a determining risk factor. We conclude that managing anemia, a treatable condition, in elective cases such as high-mortality open-heart surgeries is essential to minimize risk factors.