Pleural Fluid Characteristics of Patients With Symptomatic Pleural Effusion After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery

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Abstract
CORONARY ARTERY disease remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, with 175,000 patients requiring coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) per year. Approximately 50% of patients undergoing CABG develop a pleural effusion.1-3 The incidence of post-CABG pleural effusions is higher in patients who receive internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts than in those who receive saphenous vein grafts.2 This difference is attributed to the performance of pleurotomy to harvest the IMA grafts. Most effusions are small, asymptomatic, and left sided; regress spontaneously; and are of no clinical significance. Occasionally a patient may develop a moderate to large symptomatic pleural effusion after CABG.