Waiting lists in coronary artery bypass graft patients and role of coronary angiography: the Apulian experience

Marco Matteo Ciccone,¹ Ambrogio Aquilino,² Giulia Frasso,1 Francesca Avolio,² Barbara Contegiacomo,² Elisabetta Graps,² Francesca Cortese,² Ilaria Dentamaro,² Vito Petrarolo,² Daniela Salvante,² Anna Salvatore,² Pasquale Caldarola,³ Pietro Scicchitano,¹ Francesco Bux<sup>2

1</sup>Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation (DETO), University of Bari, ²Regional Healthcare Agency of Puglia, ³Cardiovascular Diseases Department, San Paolo Hospital, Bari, Italy

Purpose: To evaluate waiting lists during the coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) diagnostic–therapeutic pathway of patients, in order to detect the actual waiting time between diagnostic evaluation and surgery, and to explore if coronary angiography provides an option as a starting point of waiting lists for CABG patients.
Methods: We analyzed 496 hospital discharge cards (year 2009) from main cardiac surgery units in Apulia, Italy. Exclusion criteria were emergency patients coming from regions other than Apulia, and CABG associated with cardiac valve surgery.
Results: A total of 97.6% patients underwent CABG within 0–30 days of their reservation date, and 81.7% passed from the first diagnostic step to coronary angiography within 0–30 days. The mean time delay in the diagnostic (ie, the time elapsing from the date of first test performed to detect coronary heart disease and that of coronary angiography) and therapeutic (ie, the time elapsing from the date of waiting-list admission and that of cardiac surgery unit admission) phases was 17.3 ± 31.306 and 5.09 ± 9.375 days respectively; 27% and 19.8% underwent CABG within the same day or at least the day after reservation day, whilst 47.2% completed the diagnostic phase on the same day.
Conclusion: The waiting lists for CABG surgery diagnostic–therapeutic phase in Apulia are short.


Keywords: waiting lists, CABG, diagnosis, therapeutic phase