Coronary artery bypass grafts. Influence of preoperative risk factors on the late postoperative course.

In order to assess the influence of preoperative risk factors on the late postoperative course, 186 consecutive patients in whom coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) was performed for chronic stable angina (169 men, 17 women, mean age +/- SD 54 +/- 8 years) were followed for an average of 54 (6 to 113) months. The overall five-year survival rate by life-table analysis was 90 +/- 2 percent. The postoperative course was considered favorable in 112 patients (60 percent) in whom angina was absent or improved by at least 2 NYHA classes throughout the entire follow-up, and was unsatisfactory in 74 patients. It was concluded that the late postoperative course of patients with CABG was unfavorably influenced by the presence of two or three risk factors, and a high preoperative cholesterol level was the only single risk factor associated with unsatisfactory outcome.