Survival after coronary surgery.

A 4.4 year follow-up study has been done on a previously reported group of 200 consecutive patients who underwnet coronary bypass. The yearly mortality rate has been 1% (8/200 in 4 years). Our total group of 1,038 surgically treated patients has had an operative mortality rate of 1.3%, and an early graft patency rate of 89.6% has been recorded in the 60% of patients consenting to restudy. These results are compared to natural history studies with and without angiography. Comparison with recent prospective randomized studies of patients with chronic stable angina and those with unstable angina suggests that a low operative mortality rate and optimal technical performance are necessary to improve the survival rate of patiens with symptomatic obstructive coronary disease.