Clinical Results
The postoperative course mainly was uneventful. Majority of the patients
(n=54/77; 70.1%) had an ICU-stay less than 24 hours. Neither low
cardiac output nor postoperative myocardial infarction or stroke were
observed. One patient suffered from postoperative bleeding, needing
re-exploration (n=1/77; 1.3%). Three patients had postoperative
respiratory failure needing reintubation (n=3/77; 3.9%). Main
postoperative morbidity consisted of delirium in 9.1% (n=7/77) of the
patients. Mean hospital averaged 12.8 ± 6.6 days. One patient (n=1/77;
1.3%) died during primary hospital stay in consequence of pneumonia.
Further clinical results are summarized in Table 1 .