Evaluating the Frequency of Postoperative Fever in Patients with Coronary Artery Bypass Surgey

BACKGROUND Nowadays, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) is a frequent surgery in treatment of coronary artery disease. According to high expense of this surgery and its important role in patients' quality of life, high survival rate of patients and success of surgery are necessary. The aim of this study was the evaluation of fever incidence (febrile events) due to incidence of pneumonia, wound infection, bacteremia, urinary tract infection and inflammatory response without infection after CABG. METHODS In an intergrades descriptive-analytical study, 107 patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) were enrolled in the study. The patients then were examined by the febrile events and also their characteristics including age, sex, duration of surgery, underlying diseases, and frequency distribution of antibiotics consumptions in pre-surgical and postsurgical periods, and incidence of infectious syndromes. RESULTS Frequency distribution of febrile events after CABG was 29.9 percent. The most common administered antibiotic before the surgery was cephalothin (Keflin) and then, cefazolin. The most common administered antibiotic after the surgery was cephalothin (Keflin) and cephalexin (47.7%) and then, cephalothin-gentamicin-cephalexin (31.8%). The average age of patients without febrile syndrome was 60.53 years and in those with febrile syndrome was 59.31 years. In terms of gender, 74.8% of the patients were males. So that 32.5% of males and 22.2% of females had fever. The incidence time of fever in most cases was in the postoperative fourth day. In terms of underlying diseases, 13 percent of them had hypertension and hyperlipidemia, 14 percent had only hypertension, 11.2 percent had only hyperlipidemia and 6.5 percent had diabetes. CONCLUSION This study showed that the prevalence of fever in patients undergoing CABG was 29.9 percent and the most common cause of fever was sternal infections. There was a significant correlation between administered antibiotics in preoperative and postoperative periods and febrile syndrome.