Long term survival
There was no difference in survival between group 1 and 2; survival was 87% versus 84%, p=0.575 at 1 year, 64% versus 66%, p=0.880 at 5 years, 33% versus 57%, p=0.062 at 10 years, respectively (Figure 1A and supplementary Table 1).
Among patients who were discharged alive from hospital, those with postoperative complications had a lower survival compared with patients who had an uncomplicated postoperative course (p=0.023) (Figure 1C, supplementary Table 1). Survival was worse up to 5 years in those with a cardiovascular injury at re-sternotomy (46% versus 67%, p=0.025, Figure 1B and supplementary Table 1).
Postoperative complications, age and history of cerebrovascular accident were independent predictors of long term survival (Table 5).
The survival probability for the overall cohort with re-sternotomy was 85% (SE: 2.7%), 65% (SE: 3.7%), 44% (SE: 4.2%) and 17% (SE: 4.5%) at 1-year, 5-years, 10-years and 15-years, respectively, and was significantly lower than the age matched survival of patients who had first time AVR +/- other procedure(s) and the age matched survival of UK population (Figure 2).