Perioperative Blood Pressure and In-hospital Morbidity After Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

The prevalence of hypertension is high, estimated at 80% in patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease. The optimal blood pressure (BP) level for CV prevention remains controversial. Data from the literature highlight that the relationship between BP level and mortality is not linear, but rather J-shaped. In particular, in treated hypertensive patients with stable coronary artery disease, a systolic BP below 120 mm Hg is associated with the risk of recurrent coronary events and CV mortality.

An inverse relationship was recently demonstrated between BP level before revascularization procedure and mortality at 3 months and 1 year after the procedure in patients managed for critical ischemia. These data underline the need for a personalized approach to the management of hypertension, especially in elderly hypertensive patients with comorbidities.

The question of the optimal mean BP value also arises in cardiac surgery, especially during extracorporeal circulation in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting. Hypotension during cardiac surgery appears to be associated with renal failure and perioperative mortality in some patients. Conversely, high blood pressure levels (above the cerebral autoregulatory threshold) may be associated with postoperative cognitive impairment and bleeding risk. In hypertensive patients, the autoregulatory capacity of cerebral and renal perfusion is partly impaired, with a greater susceptibility to ischemia in case of hypotension. Personalized blood pressure targets could be beneficial perioperatively with a lower risk of postoperative complications.

The objective of this protocol is to determine a correlation between perioperative mean arterial pressure level and in-hospital morbidity in a population of patients with ischemic heart disease managed for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The results of this descriptive work would make it possible to introduce the problem of the optimal blood pressure target during extracorporeal circulation according to the existence of peripheral arterial damage and preoperative blood pressure values.