Preoperative intra-aortic balloon pump to reduce mortality in coronary artery bypass graft: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

This finding was already suggested by previous meta-analyses [ 7 , 8 , 25 ] but they were challenged by a recent large randomized controlled trial that concluded that the intra-aortic balloon pump was not useful in this context even if it showed a trend toward improved clinically relevant outcomes (major morbidity: 22 (40%) in the intra-aortic balloon pump group versus 17 (31%) in the control group, odds ratio =1.49 (0.68 to 3.33), P = 0.3, operative mortality: 4 (7.3%) in the intra-aortic balloon pump group versus 8 (14%) in the control group, odds ratio = 0.46 (0.13 to 1.43), P = 0.2).

also in 53,322 other papers