Skin complications of blood vessel donor limbs and their association with diabetes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting

According to the limited clinical observations and researches on cutaneous complications and hair growth changes of donor's site extremities, this study aimed to compare hair growth changes and cutaneous complications of donor's site extremity in patients who underwent coronary artery bypass graft between diabetic and non-diabetic patients.

Patients who attended the heart surgical clinic for routine follow-up 3-6 months after CABG (coronary artery bypass grafting) were evaluated. Their donor's sites in both extremities were compared with each other. Cutaneous changes were assessed and recorded by a dermatologist. After recording data, the incidence of these complications and the differences between diabetic and non-diabetic patients were evaluated.

From the 97 participants of this study, 77 were male and 20 were female. Of these patients 29 were diabetic. Ten had hypertrichosis, 3 had hair loss in donor's site extremity, 16 had hyperpigmentation changes, 21 had itches, 26 had colloid scar changes, 3 had dermatitis, and 9 had wound site infection. In this study there was no statistically significant difference regarding the incidence of complications in diabetic patients compared to non-diabetic patients (P>0.05).

The cutaneous complications in this study were similar to previous studies and the only significant finding was the incidence of hypertrichosis in donor's site extremity. In order to determine the prevalence and persistence of the complications more accurately, further studies on larger populations including follow-up of complications are warranted.