Surgical advances prevent deaths in older heart bypass patients

The age of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting has risen sharply, but the risk of death within two years of the operation and the need for readmission has declined significantly in men. Similar time trends are seen in women but do not reach significance. Pell and colleagues (p 201) say that these improvements are likely to reflect developments in surgical technique. The failure of the results to reach statistical significance in women may simply reflect the fact that fewer procedures are carried out in women.

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Relevant Article

Time trends in survival and readmission following coronary artery bypass grafting in Scotland, 1981-96: retrospective observational study

J P Pell, K MacIntyre, D Walsh, S Capewell, J J V McMurray, J W T Chalmers, J H Boyd, A R Finlayson, S Stewart, and A D Redpath
BMJ 2002 324: 201-202. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]