The association of body composition assessment with hospital length of stay in off-pump coronary artery bypass patients

Abstract

Introduction Bioelectrical impedance analysis is a widely available, non-invasive method for body composition assessment. Aim To elucidate the perioperative body composition alterations and their prognostic utility for hospital length of stay (LOS) in low risk, off-pump coronary artery bypass (OPCAB) patients. Material and methods Fifty patients undergoing elective OPCAB were included in the study. Body composition assessments were performed 1 day before the scheduled surgery and on the 6th postoperative day. Patients were grouped into < 9 days ( n = 29, 58%) and ≥ 9 days ( n = 21, 42%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to create a body composition-based screening panel for prolonged hospital stay. Results No significant differences in anthropometric measurements, clinical characteristics or occurrence of postoperative complications were detected between the study groups. Patients with longer hospitalization had significantly higher content of fat mass (FM%) and fat mass index (FMI), and significantly lower content of fat free mass (FFM%) baseline parameters ( p = 0.011, p = 0.04 and p = 0.012, respectively). High FM% values had 15-fold, low FFM% values had 13-fold and high FMI values had 7-fold higher risk of experiencing longer stay in the hospital ( p = 0.001, p = 0.001 and p = 0.005, respectively). The combined panel of three variables (higher FM%, lower FFM% and higher FMI) had 16-fold higher risk of longer hospitalization (adjusted OR = 16.40; 95% CI: 3.52–76.34; p = 0.0004). Conclusions Preoperative high FM and low FFM content are independent predictors of prolonged hospital length of stay in normal- and increased-BMI patients after OPCAB.