In this large retrospective case-control study involving 6752 cardiovascular surgery patients, we found that the use of the diuretic furosemide was very common in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery (84.0% patients had used furosemide after cardiovascular surgery). The use of high dose furosemide was significantly associated with an increased risk of death in patients after cardiovascular surgery.
Volume overload is very common after cardiopulmonary bypass surgery due to hemodynamic instability, capillary leak and acute renal function injury(12, 13). Volume overload is related with adverse outcomes in both adult and infant cardiac surgery patients(14, 15). Volume overload is also considered to be an effective predictor of renal and heart dysfunction. Urgent intervention and treatments are necessary to reduce volume overload post cardiac surgery. Diuretics and blood ultrafiltration are the most important ways to reduce excessive volume load and improve organ function after cardiovascular surgery. Furosemide is the most commonly used diuretic and is widely administrated during the perioperative period of cardiac surgery. In our report, 84.0% of patients had used furosemide, this means the use of furosemide was very routine after cardiac surgery.
Moderate use of furosemide may help to improve the damaged cardiopulmonary function, but high-dose use of furosemide may have adverse effects (6–8, 10). In this study, the results shown average daily dose of furosemide (HR 1.07; 95% CI 1.003–1.011; P = 0.001), average daily dose of furosemide ≥ 20mg/d (HR 2.099; 95% CI 1.221–3.606; P = 0.007) and total dose of furosemide ≥ 200mg (HR1.975; 95% CI 1.095–3.562; P = 0.024) were associated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality. Total dose of furosemide (HR 1.00; 95% CI 1.000-1.001; P = 0.023) and average daily dose of furosemide (HR 1.003; 95% CI 1.001–1.006; P = 0.016) were associated with increased risk of one-year mortality. Our study also found that the use of high-dose furosemide was significantly correlated with the increase of hospitalization time and mechanical ventilation time. This result suggested that high-dose use of furosemide have adverse effects in cardiac surgery patients. Similar results were reported from Cantey E. et al that a mean dose of 51.1 mg furosemide was associated with an increased 1-year death rate in TAVI patients(11). In chronic heart failure, high-dose of diuretic usage was an independent factor related to adverse long-term outcome within 2 years(9). In critically ill patients, high-dose of furosemide usage was also significantly increase mortality(16).
We further analyzed the factors of using high-dose furosemide in patients after cardiac surgery. The findings of our study revealed that female, BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2, chronic pulmonary diseases, congestive heart failure, blood transfusion, vasopressors use, high level of bicarbonate, BUN and lactate were positive factors correlated with high dosage of furosemide administration. It means patients who need high-dose diuretics are often accompanied by more severe cardiopulmonary function damage, hemodynamic disorder, renal injure and volume overload. It was hypothesized that higher doses of furosemide may reflect the severity of diseases rather than a true risk factor(17).
In the subgroup analysis, furosemide administration (average daily dose of furosemide ≥ 20mg/d) would significantly increase the risk of in-hospital mortality after cardiac surgery in the following subgroups: age < 60, BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2, vasopressors use, blood transfusion, renal failure and non-congestive heart failure patients. The results suggest that the use of high-dose furosemide in these populations may have more serious adverse outcomes.
Our results strongly confirm the adverse effects of high-dose furosemide on patients after cardiac surgery. Therefore, how to reduce the use of furosemide is important to the prognosis of patients after cardiac surgery. Cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB) have adverse effects on patients' renal and cardiac function, and would lead to serious fluid overload(1). This adverse effect increased with the duration of CPB. We believe that reducing the time of CPB can effectively protect cardiac function and has a significant impact on reducing the use of diuretics after operation. Off pump technology and mini-CPB can decrease the system inflammation, reduce bleeding and transfusion requirements, and reduce renal function damage(18, 19), these technologies would help to reduce the use of furosemide after operation. For patients with circulatory instability and severe renal dysfunction, it is important to use continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) as soon as possible instead of using high-dose diuretics. Delaying the timing of CRRT may cause serious adverse events to patients(20, 21). Transthoracic echocardiography can accurately evaluate the volume status and effectively guide liquid therapy in critical ill patients. Studies have confirmed that using echocardiography to assess volume status can reduce the mortality of critically ill patients (22). We believe that the use of echocardiography can effectively reduce the use of furosemide.
This retrospective study revealed the correlation between furosemide administration and postoperative mortality and adverse events in cardiac surgery patients. It indicated that high doses of furosemide administration may reflect the severity of diseases. We need to carefully evaluate and adjust the patient's volume status to reduce the use of furosemide in order to reduce adverse events caused by furosemide in cardiac surgery patients.