Coronary artery bypass surgery in patients over age 70 years: report from the Milwaukee Cardiovascular Data Registry.

Between 1972 and 1985, 674 coronary bypass patients greater than or equal to 70 years (70% male, mean age 73 years) were among 10,622 patients with both catheterization and operative data entered into the Milwaukee Cardiovascular Data Registry. These greater than or equal to 70 years patients were analyzed regarding the operative morbidity, the 30-day operative mortality and the operative mortality's relation to coronary artery disease and ventricular wall motion abnormalities. The operative mortality was not different for the 174 patients operated upon before and the 500 patients after 1980. A mean of 3.4 grafts were placed during surgery. The complications encountered included a 7.1% perioperative infarction rate, a 4.2% incidence of cerebrovascular accident, a 3.6% incidence of reoperation for bleeding, a 2.4% incidence of renal failure, and a 2.1% incidence of pulmonary embolism. The overall operative mortality was 7.4%. The extent of coronary artery disease was distributed among patients such that 8.4% had single-, 28.0% had double-, and 63.6% had triple-vessel disease. The operative mortality as related to the extent of coronary artery disease was 5.2% for single-, 8.9% for double-, and 7.0% for triple-vessel disease. The operative mortality was 6.7% with no and 7.9% with left ventricular wall motion abnormalities. The operative mortality was 1.9% with 1 segmental wall motion abnormality, and increased to 13.3% (p less than 0.05) with 4-6 segmental wall motion abnormalities.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)