Long-Term Outcome of Cardiac Surgery in 1,040 Liver Cirrhosis Patient - Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study

Background: Patients with liver cirrhosis (LC) have a higher risk for cardiac surgery, but population-based long-term follow-up studies are lacking. The aim of this study was therefore to validate the long-term outcome of cardiac surgery in patients with LC.

Methods and results: Data were obtained from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Database, 1997-2011. This study included 1,040 LC patients and 1,040 matched controls without LC. The actuarial survival rate at 1, 5 and 10 years in the LC cohort was 68%, 50% and 41%: significantly lower than that of the control cohort at 81%, 68% and 62% at 1, 5 and 10 years after cardiac surgery. Compared with the matched control cohort, the LC group had a higher risk of liver and heart failure readmission (P<0.001) during the follow-up period. In addition, the LC cohort had a higher risk of liver causes of death than did the control cohort (12.6% vs. 1.2%). In the LC cohort, 51% of deaths were due to hepatocellular carcinoma. And in the LC group, those with valve surgery and advanced cirrhosis had a lower survival rate (P=0.002, P=0.001).

Conclusions: Even after successful cardiac surgery, long-term outcome is unsatisfactory in LC patients because of the progressive deterioration of liver function.