Coronary-artery bypass surgery in stable angina pectoris: Survival at two years. European Coronary Surgery Study Group.

768 men aged under 65 with angina pectoris, at least 50% obstruction in two or more major vessels, and a left-ventricular ejection fraction greater than or equal to 0.5 took part in a prospective randomised trial of the effect of coronary-artery bypass on prognosis. 373 patients were alloted to medical and 395 to surgical treatment. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the distribution of variables recorded at the time of randomisation. 1. "surgical" patient was lost to follow-up. 26 "surgical" patients did not undergo surgery and 50 "medical" patients were operated on. All these 76 patients were retained in their original treatment groups for the analysis. At 2 years there was no significant difference in mortality between the two groups. A significant difference was, however, found in the subset of patients with three-vessel disease, survival being significantly better for surgical patients. Operative (in-hospital) mortality was 3.6% in all operated patients and 1.5% in the last third. On average, 1.9 grafts per patient were inserted in the two-vessel-disease subgroup and 2.4 grafts per patient in the three-vessel-disease subgroup. Graft-patency rate was 90% within 9 months and 77% between 9 and 18 months after surgery. Symptomatic improvement was significantly better and deterioration less in the surgical group.