Article Text
Abstract
Background This is a prospective, comparative, pilot and follow-up (2-year postoperatively) study in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery where the long saphenous vein was harvested either by the endoscopic vein harvest (EVH) technique or open vein harvest (OVH) technique. Quality of life (QOL) and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE) were assessed.
Methods Alive patients who were initially part of a pilot study when EVH was introduced in our institution were included (n=48 EVH, n=49 OVH). Patients were sent a QOL questionnaire (SF12v2; 12-item medical outcomes study short form health survey version 2.0), and their cardiologist and general practitioner were contacted to assess MACCE.
Results Median follow-up was 32 and 33 months, respectively. Three patients died (2 EVH, 1 OVH). Of the remaining 97 patients who were sent a questionnaire, 76% patients returned the form. More patients from the EVH group returned the QOL questionnaire (82% vs 71%). Time taken to return to normal daily activities was much shorter in EVH (median 6 (2–30) weeks) compared with OVH (median 9 (2–50) weeks) (P<0.05). QOL questionnaire revealed significant difference in physical score at follow-up: 45.3 (10.2) for EVH group and 40.7 (11.0) for OVH group (P<0.05). There was no difference in mental scores (46.9 (10.5) vs 49.2 (9.1), P=0.4). There were no significant differences in MACCEs including death between the two groups (12.2% vs 13.9%, P=0.5).
Conclusion EVH patients returned to normal daily activities faster than OVH patients and experienced better physical QOL even after 2 years postoperatively with no increase in MACCE during follow-up.
- cardiac surgery
- long saphenous vein harvest
- endoscopic vein harvest
- quality of life
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Footnotes
Contributors All the authors listed for this manuscript have been involved in some of the following: study design, protocol writing, ethics submission, data collection, data analysis and manuscript writing. They all have reviewed the final version of the manuscript and are in agreement with its content.
Funding This work was supported by Maquet (Sunderland, UK) with a research grant, which was used to cover the cost for the research nurse.
Competing interests HL has received educational grant from Maquet to attend cardiothoracic surgical meetings.
Ethics approval This study is in agreement with the Hospital’s Research and Development Department and received ethical approval (NRES Committee South Central - Oxford, Ref 15/SC/0178).
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement Data for this study are available on request to the R&D Department at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.