The Effect of Open Heart Surgery on FVC, FEV1 and FVC/FEV1 of Patients

In Iran, 25000 open heart surgeries are performed annually, which are mainly dedicated to coronary artery bypass surgery. Pulmonary complications after open heart surgery impose a high socio-economic burden on the society because of the length of hospital stay and the use of mechanical means. In this study, we aimed to investigate the possibility of impaired forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and FVC/FEV1 indices before and after open heart surgery, which has been directly addressed in fewer studies.

In this cross-sectional study, all 125 candidates for open heart surgery who referred to Shahid Mohammadi Hospital of Bandar Abbas University of Medical Sciences during 2107-2018 were included. The patients were evaluated by spirometry three times. Before the operation, FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC were measured 3-10 days and 3-6 months after surgery. Then, the changes obtained from the evaluation were extracted three times before surgery, and 3-10 days and 3-6 months after surgery, using IBM SPSS, version 17, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentage, etc.), and one-way and repeated measures analysis of variance.

FVC decreased by 0.6 in both patients with asthma and healthy ones. The mean FVC was also 0.4 in the diabetic group and 0.7 in the non-diabetic group. Mean FEV1 before surgery A, one week after surgery B and three to six months after surgery C in the two asthma and healthy groups showed a decrease of 1.2 and 1.3, respectively. Mean FEV1 before surgery A, one week after surgery B and three to six months after surgery C in smokers and non-smokers decreased by 0.9 and 1, respectively.

Based on the results of our study, there is no doubt about the development of pulmonary dysfunction after heart surgery. This disorder occurred in the present study independent from asthma, diabetes, and smoking.