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During the past decade, observational reports have supported off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) as adequate for achieving revascularization, with less morbidity and mortality than for on-pump CABG. However, these reports have been limited by selection bias and other methodological problems. To minimize such problems, researchers from a single center compared outcomes of on-pump and off-pump CABG in propensity-matched pairs of patients (i.e., pairs who were equally likely to undergo each procedure type). The propensity method also enabled researchers to exclude patients with a high likelihood of receiving one particular revascularization strategy or the other.
Of 481 off-pump and 3231 on-pump patients undergoing CABG from 1997 to…