IJCS | Volume 32, Nº1, January/ February 2019

33 Table 6 - Comparison of costs between patients who died and patients who survived Deaths Survivors P * Mean SD Mean SD Days of hospitalization 31.1 28.3 32.5 21.9 0.816 Age 68.2 8.8 60.9 8.6 0.000 Body mass index 27.4 5.3 28.3 4.4 0.322 Days in intensive care unit 19.6 26.6 6.8 12.7 0.020 Mechanical ventilation time 178.5 349.1 29.2 93.5 0.000 Left ventricle ejection fraction 54.4 14.3 55.9 14.6 0.637 Creatinine clearance 63.6 37.2 83.5 30.7 0.002 Costs of medications 11,717.50 18,120.39 3,780.36 9,721.33 0.034 Costs of laboratory tests 871.80 726.64 557.05 457.81 0.036 Costs of imaging tests 935.24 756.39 540.42 541.19 0.001 Material costs 4,477.27 3,833.72 2,242.62 1,318.88 0.006 Daily rate costs 10,737.76 13,509.94 5,118.73 6,680.65 0.042 Healthcare professional costs 11,758.06 12,386.86 8,145.34 6,788.84 0.148 Total costs 40,497.63 44,819.92 20,384.51 24,463.07 0.036 * Statistical Analysis performed with the Student's t test. Barbosa et al. Complications of CABG and hospital expenses Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2019;32(1)28-34 Original Article surgery and deep sternal wound infection in 0.45% to 5% of cases. A study conducted in the state of Rio Grande do Sul with 717 patients observed an incidence of infections in the postoperative period of CABG of 19.1%, a higher percentage compared to the percentage found in this study (15.4%). 9 Surgical wound infections after CABG extend the length of hospital stay and increase hospitalization costs. The increase in hospitalization costs was attributed to more frequent use of antimicrobial agents in patients who had nosocomial infection. 10 Patients with cardiovascular complications also had increased hospitalization cost. A study carried out identified that cardiovascular complications, such as stroke and postoperative shock following CABG increased hospitalization costs, because greater material and human resources were necessary due to extended length of hospital stay. 11 Patients who had bleeding during the CABG postoperative period had a higher average hospitalization cost compared to patients without bleeding. Other studies also report the impact of this complication on the increase of hospital costs. 11,12 The mortality rate observed in this study is similar to the one found in other Brazilian studies, 13 which showed a mortality rate of 13%. Another study carried out in Brazil, 14 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, showed that in-hospital CABG mortality in four hospitals ranged from 7.0% to 14.3%, with a joint mortality rate of 10.9%. The patients who died had a higher cost compared to the survivors. This result is in accordance with another study 5 performed with 14,780 patients submitted to isolated CABG, which demonstrated that the patients who died had higher hospital costs, with an average cost of US$ 49,242, currently corresponding to R$ 178,748.46. Among the limitations of this study, we can highlight that it is an observational and retrospective study. Consequently, we depended greatly on the accuracy of the information contained in the medical files to carry out this research. The undertaking of the study in a single reference center may generate questions about the validity of its findings in other hospitals of the SUS where the procedure is performed. Few patients underwent off-pump CABG, which limits the application of this study’s results to this type of surgery.