Impact of Etomidate vs. Propofol on Development of Sepsis and Infectious Complications Post Cardiac Surgery

Etomidate had been a standard induction agent as it results in increased hemodynamic stability compared to propofol. This is seen as a major advantage in patients that frequently have a fragile haemodynamic situation.

A major side effect of Etomidate is the resulting adrenal dysfunction, which hampers the bodies stress response and has been shown to cause a higher mortality in infectious contexts such as sepsis. It remains unclear to what extend this attenuated stress response has an impact on the post-operative context in cardiosurgical patients. First preliminary data show that patients receiving Etomidate as an induction agent are more prone to infection than those receiving a different agent, a definitive correlation is nevertheless still lacking.

This is a retrospective before-after-study comparing the rate of infectious complications in patients receiving either valve and/or coronary cardiac surgery at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin between October 1st, 2012 and January 31th, 2015. On October 1st, 2013 the standard operating procedures for anesthesia for cardiac surgery were amended and the induction agent at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin was switched from Etomidate to Propofol. The investigators are therefore comparing patients undergoing cardiac surgery between October 1st, 2012 and September 30th, 2013 as the Etomidate group with patients undergoing surgery between February 1st, 2014 and January 31st, 2015 as the Propofol group. The gap in between the two groups (October 1st, 2013 - January 31st, 2014) was defined as a washout phase to account for a potential delay in implementation of the renewed standard operating procedures. Patients will be investigated unmatched as well as matched according to (Age, Body Mass Index, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification system (ASA), New York Heart Association Functional Classification (NYHA), Surgical Mode and Diabetes). The data for both groups will be acquired from the 2 electronic patient data management systems at our hospital (COPRA System, Sasbachwalden, Germany, and SAP, Walldorf, Germany).