This secondary analysis compared cardiac surgery patients receiving continuous serratus anterior plane catheters in a prior trial with propensity-matched historical standard-care patients undergoing sternotomy. Investigators matched 50 trial patients to 989 historical patients. Pneumothorax occurred in 12% versus 3%, respectively (odds ratio 5.3; 95% confidence interval 2.1–13.6). ICU readmissions, ventilation duration, and ICU or hospital length of stay did not differ significantly between groups. Patients developing pneumothorax had longer ventilation and hospital stays, but causality for the catheter-associated pneumothorax difference remains unclear.
Continuous serratus anterior plane catheters were associated with more pneumothoraces in this historical comparison. The findings identify a postoperative complication signal, not proof that catheters caused the excess events.
Study limitation: Historical controls and potentially different monitoring within the trial limit causal interpretation despite propensity matching.
AI-generated from the published abstract with automated source checks. For research discovery; consult the original paper before applying findings.