Interventional coronary therapy in the elderly.

Advancing age is associated with significantly greater mortality and morbidity in the elderly undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting or PTCA. Nevertheless, successful bypass surgery or PTCA in the elderly has significant benefits (i.e., relief of angina or increase in longevity) that exceed that of the United States population matched for age and gender. Continued improvement in skills in cardiac surgery and PTCA correlated significantly with a progressively better prognosis in the young as well as the elderly.