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J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2005;129:1292-1300
© 2005 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery

Surgery for Acquired Cardiovascular Disease

Significant value of autopsy for quality management in cardiac surgery

^a Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart Center, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
^b Institute of Pathology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

Read at the Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, April 25–28, 2004.

Received for publication May 15, 2004; revisions received December 4, 2004; accepted for publication December 10, 2004.

^_* Address for reprints: Ardawan Julian Rastan, MD, Department of Cardiac Surgery, Heart Center Leipzig, Struempellstr. 39, 04289 Leipzig, Germany. (Email: rastan{at}rz.uni-leipzig.de).

OBJECTIVE: With recent advances in diagnostic imaging, the value of autopsy has been called into question. The aim of our study was to assess the current impact of autopsy for early postoperative quality management in cardiac surgery.

METHODS: Between 2000 and 2003, a total of 14,313 patients underwent cardiac surgery at our center. Of these, 898 patients (6.3%) died, and autopsy was performed in 468 cases (52.1%). Data from clinical and postmortem examination were prospectively analyzed regarding causes of death, postoperative complications, concomitant diseases, and surgery-associated pathologic findings.

RESULTS: Mean age was 68.7 years. Mean survival was 13.9 postoperative days. On autopsy, causes of death were cardiac in 49.8% of cases (n = 233), respiratory in 8.3% (n = 39), cerebral in 6.4% (n = 30), abdominal in 4.7% (n = 22), multiorgan failure or sepsis in 14.9% (n = 70), pulmonary embolism in 6.6% (n = 31), procedure associated in 8.3% (n = 39), and others in 0.9% (n = 4). Discrepancies between clinical and postmortem determinations of cause of death were found in 108 cases (23.1%). These were acute myocardial infarction (n = 38), low cardiac output (n = 9), respiratory (n = 8), cerebral (n = 5), abdominal (n = 7), multiorgan failure or sepsis (n = 12), pulmonary embolism (n = 18), and procedure associated (11). Clinically unrecognized postoperative complications were found in 364 cases (77.8%). Unknown concomitant diseases were found in 464 cases (99.1%), with potential therapeutic relevance in 90 cases (19.2%). In 85 cases (18.2%), autopsy examination revealed 96 premortem unrecognized surgery-associated pathologic findings.

CONCLUSION: A high overall discrepancy rate between premortem and autopsy diagnoses was recognized. Autopsy revealed clinically relevant information in a significant number of cases. Therefore autopsy remains essential for quality assessment in perioperative treatment.

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