Short-term and Long-term Postoperative Safety of Off-Pump versus On-Pump Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting for Coronary Heart Disease: A Meta-analysis for Randomized Controlled Trials.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to compare the short-term (30 days after surgery) and long-term (over 6 months' follow-up) postoperative safety of off-pump and on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). METHODS: Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were obtained from PubMed, Embase, Springer, Ovid, and Cochrane library up to July 2013. Odds ratios (ORs) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to access effect sizes. RESULTS: Seven RCTs involving 9,128 patients were included. Results suggested no significant difference in all the short-term outcomes (mortality, OR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.69 to 1.16, p = 0.41; myocardial infarction, OR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.79 to 1.15, p = 0.61; stroke, OR = 0.78, 95% CI: 0.56 to 1.07, p = 0.12; renal failure, OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.60 to 1.18, p = 0.43; revascularization: OR = 1.95, 95% CI: 0.79 to 4.85, p = 0.15) and some long-term outcomes (mortality, OR = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.86 to 1.22, p = 0.81; myocardial infarction, OR = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.70 to 1.04, p = 0.12; stroke, OR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.67 to 1.19, p = 0.44) between off-pump and on-pump CABG. However, off-pump CABG had a significantly higher revascularization rate (OR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.02 to 2.06; p = 0.04) than on-pump CABG in long-term follow-up. CONCLUSION: Short-term postoperative safety was similar between off-pump and on-pump CABG. A high revascularization rate was the drawback of off-pump CABG for CHD patients in long-term follow-up.