Association Between Extubation Time and ICU and Hospital Length of Stay in Cardiac Surgery

IntroductionWith the backlog of surgical care needed, improving hospital efficiency while optimising patient care is an ongoing health priority. This retrospective study aims to explore the association between time until patient extubation following cardiac surgery and intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay.MethodsA national database was accessed to collect data from patients admitted to a tertiary ICU in 2022 following cardiac surgery requiring cardiopulmonary bypass. Patient demographics and clinical data including time to extubation following ICU admission, ICU length of stay, and hospital length of stay were collected. Preliminary descriptive statistics have been completed. Further inferential statistical analyses remain ongoing, including subgroup analyses and multiple regression analyses.ResultsData from 437 patients were collected. Most patients were male (80.3%) with a median age of 63 (IQR 16). The median time to extubation was 9.6 hours (IQR 10.3), with a median ICU length of stay of 23.8 hours (IQR 22.8) and a total hospital length of stay of 6 days (IQR 4.4). Most patients were extubated after more than six hours (76.7%; n = 335) following ICU admission, with the minority extubated within six hours (23.3%; n = 102). Initial analyses found a longer extubation was significantly associated with ICU length of stay (ρ = 0.537, p <0.001) and hospital length of stay (ρ = 0.481, p <0.001).DiscussionThe findings of this study aim to describe the associations between extubation time and ICU and hospital length of stay in a sample of cardiac surgery patients at a tertiary hospital. Exploring associations will aid in assessing the potential effect on outcomes of early extubation after cardiac surgery.