Prognostic impact of hemoglobin concentration at one to three months after coronary surgery

There is a consensus of agreement among several studies on the negative prognostic impact of anemia on the early outcome of cardiovascular surgery1,2. A growing body of evidence suggests that pre-operative treatment of anemia and iron deficiency with intravenous iron, particularly when administered with erythropoietin, may increase the concentration of hemoglobin (Hb) with a reduced risk of allogeneic blood transfusion3-6. However, current knowledge of the benefits of, and possible harm from, iron administration before cardiac surgery is rather limited4,6 and patient blood management strategies7 are not widely implemented. Importantly, no data on the prevalence and prognostic impact of anemia several weeks after cardiac surgery are available. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of post-operative anemia 1-3 months after surgery on the late survival of patients who had undergone isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)