Preoperative levosimendan in coronary surgery in patients with severe ventricular dysfunction : Does it make sense? Levosimendán preoperatorio en cirugía coronaria con disfunción ventricular severa: ¿tiene sentido?

Introduction and objectives: Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefit of levosimendan in patients with chronic and acute heart failure. However, when it comes to its preoperatory use in coronary by-pass surgery in patients with severe ventricular dysfunction, there are some contradictory results. The objective of this study is assessing preconditioning efficiency with levosimendan in surgical myocardial revascularization in patients with severe ventricular dysfunction. Methods: We design a propensity score-matched cohort study. The study included patients with a LVEF less or equal to 35% who underwent isolated coronary artery by-pass grafting or associated to ischemic/functional mitral surgery from January 2009 to October 2019. They were split into two cohorts whether they received levosimendan preoperatively (Levo) or not (NoLevo); after matching there were 64 patients per cohort. Outcome variables were postoperative morbi-mortality, readmission and follow-up mortality. Statistical analysis: categorical data were compared with a Chi-square or Fisher exact test, and quantitative data with a t-Student or W-Wilcoxon tests. RR/HR were estimated for assessing the association between preoperative use of levosimendan and outcomes. Results: Preoperative levosimendan use did not decreased in-hospital mortality (RR = 0,86, p = 0.770), and neither do hospital stay, nor postoperative complications. Event-free survival was similar between cohorts in terms of cardiological readmissions, all-cause and cardiological follow-up mortality. Conclusions: Our results do not support the widespread use of levosimendan previously to myocardial revascularization surgery in patients with severe ventricular dysfunction.