Risk of coronary surgery. Two hundred consecutive patients with no hospital deaths.

Revascularization surgery must carry a low morbidity and mortality rate to be a valid alternative treatment of obstructive coronary disease. A consecutive series of 200 patients underwent coronary bypasses at LIJ-HMC. The average age was 53.9 years (33 to 77) with 81.5 per cent of the patients men. Clinical presentation was as follows: 28 per cent were in New York Heart Association Class III and 72 per cent in Class IV (or unstable). Previous infarctions were documented in 37 per cent. Sixteen patients (8 per cent) had disease of the main left coronary artery. Single bypasses were placed in 37.5 per cent, double in 40.5 per cent, and triple or quadruple in 22 per cent. The rate of vein graft patency was 95.3 per cent (245 of 257 studied grafts). There were no hospital deaths in this consecutive group of 200 patients. There have been two late deaths after an average follow-up period of 16 months.