Postoperative Survival
Thirty-day (75.2% vs 97.3%), one-year (58.1% vs 93.7%) and three-year (51.6% vs 88.9%) survival was significantly lower in patients with GI complications (all P<0.001) (Figure 1A ). Of all significant predictors, experiencing a postoperative GI complication portended the highest risk-adjusted hazards for mortality in multivariable modeling (HR 3.12, 95%CI 2.61 to 3.72, P<0.001). Other risk factors included increasing age, female gender, diabetes mellitus, dialysis dependency, and preoperative New York Heart Association Class III or IV symptoms. Urgent or emergent procedures were associated with increased hazards for mortality, as well as combined CABG and either aortic or mitral valve replacement (Table 5 ).