Results of direct coronary artery surgery in women.

In the past 4 years, among 260 patients receiving coronary bypass grafts for coronary artery disease and stable angina pectoris, there were 34 women (13 per cent). The operative mortality rate for women was 8 per cent (3 of 34), and one late death due to myocardial infarction occurred in spite of a patent coronary bypass graft. The intraoperative infarction rate was 20 per cent (6 per cent in men). Although preoperative cardiac pump and muscle function parameters were better in women than in men (p less than 0.05), postoperatively only 30 per cent of women showed improvement in function as compared with 50 per cent of men. At 6 to 46 months' follow-up, 84 per cent of women were free of angina in contrast with 94 per cent of men. The early (4 month) graft patency rate was 50 per cent (14 of 27 grafts), as opposed to 80 per cent (20 of 25 grafts) in men. These results indicate that, although coronary artery disease shows anatomic similarity in women and men, the result of coronary revascularization in women is inferior to that in the male population.