Coronary bypass grafting in patients with chronic congestive heart failure.

Three to four percent of patients who have myocardial revascularization without additional procedures have moderately severe or severe heart failure. Analysis of reported experience and data from two centers indicate that the severity of heart failure correlates poorly with left ventricular ejection fraction and other indexes of left ventricular function. Operative mortality ranges from 2.2% to 14.9% and roughly correlates with the severity of heart failure. By logistic regression, age, ejection fraction, presence of mitral regurgitation, and presence of left main coronary artery disease are identified as incremental risk factors for operative death. Long-term survival is affected by age, ejection fraction, sex, presence of left main coronary artery disease, severity of angina, and presence of mitral insufficiency.