LOS after CABG?

Specialties Cardiac

Published

Specializes in Critical Care.

I work in the cath lab and thought that the average LOS after CABG was 5-7 days.

Recently my BF's mother had bypass with a LIMA and two sequential grafts. Before her surgery the PA that would be in on the case told her to expect the average. Her surgery was off-pump and she got to the ICU about 1:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday. She was home by 6 PM on Friday.

I have no problems taking care of her because I am a nurse, but my thought is for the families of the people who don't have even that resource available to them.

Is this becoming the norm for patients to have this and be out of the hospital within 60 hours? Heck, a c-section patient stays in longer.

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Specializes in ICU.

That is WAY too quick in my opinion. We do not even pull lines for almost 24 hours and that is if the patiant is stable. They most often spend 24-48 hours in ICU then another 3-4 days on the floor concentrationg on cardio pulmonary rehab. I would think that her risk of post op infection and complications would be much higher. Make sure she is doing her IS every 4 hours and is staying on top of pain control. Getting her out of bed and walking several times a day whether she wants to or not is also very important. I would have definatly discussed length of stay further with the surgeon before she was discharged.

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Specializes in ICUs, Tele, etc..

Wow, POD #2!!! So used to 5, maybe 4 if everything's well. She must have been doing that well? Cardiac rehab and stairs at POD # 2? Even if it was off pump that seems so early...Hope she's doing great!

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I stay on top of the IS and we have her walk 6 times a day. We gave her a two day period to walk on a level surface then got her up and down the stairs (7 of them) once a day since then. She is actually doing great with the pain control and breathing. I was at work when the surgeon discharged her and she wanted to go home so she went along with it.

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I've seen patients discharged on post-op day three. This is the exception though.

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Your mother's discharge on POD2 for an OPCAB is acceptable. I work on cardiac surgery stepdown, and we send pts home POD3 who were on pump.

The P.A. was obviously mistaken and commented on a traditional CABG. Every facility/hospital have different LOS. Some are more conservative than others. I imagine your mother is relatively young without comorbities. She will do fine :)

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Specializes in LDRP.

Our standard is out of hte ICU on POD#1, with no complications-home on POD#4 or so. I've seen some exceptional patients(walking halls with no difficulty several times on POD#1) go home on POD#3

.

On the other hand, we have some that stay much longer. LIke, 8 months (and still there)

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