The effect of the body mass index on postoperative complications of coronary artery bypass grafting in elderly O efeito do índice de massa corporal sobre as complicações no pós-operatório de cirurgia de revascularização do miocárdio em idosos

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of BMI (body mass index) in the postoperative period of elderly patients undergoing CABG. Methods: Cross-sectional retrospective study, carried out in academic hospital, with all patients (n=290), aged or above 60 years, undergone CABG, from August 2006 to July 2007. The patients were divided into tertiles of BMI ( 27kg/m²). The variables included in the study were collected from medical records of patients and analyzed by logistic regression in association with the categories of BMI. Results: In the group with malnutrition were found larger percentage of impaired lung, kidney, hospital stay and immediate surgical mortality; but without statistical significance. Among female patients, the group malnutrition and eutrophy, 61.5% had hospital stay for a period longer than seven postoperative days compared to 42.5% male