Temperature during coronary artery bypass surgery affects quality of life

Background. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of tempe rature on a variety of indices of psychologic adjustment and quality of lif e. Methods. A total of 209 patients randomly received normothermic (warm) or h ypothermic (cold) conditions during coronary artery bypass surgery (CABS), and a number of physical, social, and psychologic measures were assessed be fore as well as 6 weeks and 6 months after CABS. Results. Repeated measures analyses of covariance revealed significant temp erature group main effects for anxiety (p = 0.008) and depression (p = 0.03 9), with the normothermic group obtaining lower anxiety and depression leve ls than the hypothermic group at both 6 weeks and 6 months after surgery. A dditionally, among patients who entered the study with higher depression le vels, those in the hypothermic group tended to have higher depression score s at follow-up compared with patients in the normothermic condition (p = 0. 012). No temperature group differences were observed on other quality of li fe indices. Conclusions. The results of the present study indicate that hypothermic con ditions during CABS are associated with higher levels of emotional distress after CABS than normothermic conditions, particularly for patients with gr eater stress to begin with. (Ann Thorac Surg 2001;71:110-6) (C) 2001 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.