Background—The predictive value of the preoperative hemoglobin value after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has not been well established. We studied how the preoperative hemoglobin level affects the survival of patients after CABG. Late mortality was compared with that of a general population.

Methods and Results—Early and late mortality of all consecutive patients undergoing isolated CABG between January 1998 and December 2007 were determined. Patients were classified into 4 groups stratified by preoperative hemoglobin level. The cutoff point for anemia was 13 g/dL for men and 12 g/dL for women. Expected survival of a matched general Dutch population cohort was obtained from the database of the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics. After the exclusion of 122 patients who were lost to follow-up and 481 patients with missing preoperative hemoglobin levels, complete data were obtained in 10 025 patients. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed anemia to be an independent risk factor for higher early mortality. Cox regression analyses revealed low hemoglobin level, both as a continuous variable and as a dichotomous variable (anemia), to be a predictor of higher late mortality. Compared with expected survival, patients with the lowest preoperative hemoglobin levels had a worse outcome, whereas patients with the highest hemoglobin levels had a better outcome.

Conclusions—A lower preoperative hemoglobin level is an independent predictor of late mortality in patients undergoing CABG, whereas anemia is a risk factor for early and late mortality. Compared with the general population, anemic patients had worse survival than expected, whereas nonanemic patients had better survival than expected.