Hirji SA, et al. - In patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) undergoing cardiac surgery, researchers assessed perioperative outcomes as well as risk factors for long-term survival. In addition to 294 cardiac surgery patients with a prior ILD diagnosis (including 75 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) cases), this study also included 1,481 non-ILD patients as a comparison cohort. Participants were followed-up for a median duration of 6.4 years. Findings revealed increased operative mortality, reintubation rates, longer intensive care unit, and higher 30-day readmissions among ILD patients undergoing cardiac surgery vs non-ILD patients. Shorter long-term survival was observed in relation to the severity of ILD, particularly in IPF. The significance of pulmonary risk stratification and multi-disciplinary team approach in these patients was emphasized. Survival at 1, 5 and 10 years were 89%, 62%, and 37% for the non-IPF ILD cohort, 89%, 50% and 13% for the IPF cohort, and 95%, 82% and 67% for the comparison cohort.