According to the EuroSCORE-II criteria, patients undergoing emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) are operated on before the beginning of the next working day after decision to operate while salvage CABG patients require cardiopulmonary resuscitation en route to the operating theatre. The objective of this multicentre study was to investigate the efficacy of emergency and salvage CABG.

A retrospective analysis of all patients that underwent emergency or salvage CAGB at four North-European university hospitals from 2006 to 2014.

A total of 614 patients; 580 emergency and 34 salvage CABG patients (mean age 67 ± 10 years, 56% males) were included. All patients had an acute coronary syndrome: 234 (38%) had an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and 289 (47%) had a non-STEMI. Haemodynamic instability requiring inotropic drugs and/or intra-aortic balloon pump preoperatively occurred in 87 (14%) and 82 (13%) of the patients, respectively. Three hundred and thirty-one patient (54%) were transferred to the operating room immediately after angiography and 205 (33%) had a failure of an attempted percutaneous coronary intervention. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation within 1 h before the operation was performed in 49 patients (8%), and 9 patients (1%) received cardiac massage during sternotomy. Hospital mortality for emergency and salvage operations was 13 and 41%, respectively. Early complications included reoperation for bleeding (15%), postoperative stroke (6%) and de novo dialysis for acute kidney injury (6%). Overall 5-year survival rate was 79% for emergency operations and 46% for salvage operations. Only one out of 9 patients receiving cardiac massage during sternotomy survived.

Early mortality in patients undergoing emergent and salvage CABG is substantial, especially in salvage patients. Long-term survival is acceptable in both emergent and salvage patients. Life-saving emergency and salvage CABG is justified in most patients but salvage patients have dismal prognosis if cardiac massage is needed during sternotomy.