Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting complicated by post-operative coronavirus infection – two similar presentations with dissimilar outcomes

Abstract

Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 infection undergoing surgical procedures have been reported to have increased post-operative complications and mortality. These findings are important when considering cardiac surgical procedures, specifically coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) during this pandemic, since the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) describes most of these operations as ‘urgent’. In addition, the majority of cardiac surgical patients are at increased risk of infection and death with COVID-19, as they are frequently of old age, obese, hypertensive, and diabetic, with severe cardiac or pulmonary diseases. This case series describes the clinical course following a CABG procedure in two patients that went on to develop COVID-19 infection post-operatively. We aim to illustrate the similarities in clinical presentation, but differences in eventual outcomes for both patients and hypothesize the reasons for the differences.