Cardiothoracic & vascular anaesthesia
Postoperative anaemia and long‐term survival following cardiac surgery: a multicentre, retrospective, observational study
Main finding · Overall survival (mortality) by anaemia at dischargeResult — go to the resultHazard ratio 1.11 95% CI 1.01–1.21Authors' conclusion
Postoperative anaemia showed a weak independent association with long-term mortality, in contrast to the clear dose-response relationship observed for pre-operative anaemia.
Study context
- Population
- Adult cardiac surgery patients from two Danish tertiary centres (2000–2024)
- Participants
- 25,697 patients · 2 Danish centres
- Exposure
- Anaemia at hospital discharge vs no anaemia
- Mild anaemian = 8,384
- Moderate-severe anaemian = 15,551
- Outcome
- Overall survival from surgery to death or censoring at end of follow-up
Methodological detailsmulticentre, observational
- Multicentre
- Observational
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Overall survival (mortality) by anaemia at discharge
Hazard ratio
1.11
95% CI 1.01–1.21
P = 0.034
Events by group
Moderate-severe anaemia vs No anaemia
HR 1.11 (95% CI 1.01–1.21); P = 0.034
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Haemoglobin–mortality relationship (restricted cubic splines)
- Steep, non-linear relationship between pre-operative haemoglobin and mortality; discharge haemoglobin gave limited prognostic information beyond baseline characteristics and surgical complexity
Haemoglobin recovery trajectory · 1 year
- Recovery plateaued around 4 months after discharge; average haemoglobin remained below baseline even after 1 year
Original publication
Postoperative anaemia and long‐term survival following cardiac surgery: a multicentre, retrospective, observational study. Anaesthesia. Published 21 July 2026. doi:10.
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