Findings from a new register study from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University, Denmark show that mortality following bypass surgery increases after 8-10 years.

Prognosis following heart bypass surgery is generally good and has shown improvement over the last three decades. However, this new study shows that mortality increases by nearly 60 to 80% 8-10 years after a heart bypass operation.

The study evaluated 51,000 Danish patients who had undergone bypass surgery between 1980-2009. These patients were correlated with a control group of 500,000 randomly selected people from the general population of the same age and gender.

Findings showed that the probability of continuing life after bypass surgery is close to being the same as in the general population but after eight to ten years, this prognosis changes. Compared with the general population, the mortality rate for ten-year survivors is between 60 to 80%. The mortality increase may be due to the fact that the disease is progressive and atherosclerosis increases or the implanted material fails.

These findings highlight the need for clinicians to carefully assess their patients - during the first month as it is critical and also after eight to ten years as there is a risk that something could happen.

"It is well-known that there are risks associated with a complicated operation in the heart, but fortunately mortality in connection with the surgery itself is quite low. What is new is that we have precise figures for the prognosis, including the long-term prognosis for patients who have undergone bypass surgery, compared with the rest of the population," says Kasper Adelborg, the primary author of the publication 'Thirty-Year Mortality After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery. 

Source: Aarhus University
Image Credit: Pixabay


References:

Adelborg, Kasper et al. (2017) Thirty-Year Mortality After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft SurgeryA Danish Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.116.002708



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atherosclerosis, mortality, bypass surgery Findings from a new register study from the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University, Denmark shows that mortality following bypass surgery increases after 8-10 years.