Coronary artery bypass in women: long-term survival.

During a 6-year period ending December, 1976, 385 female patients underwent coronary artery bypass at the Mid-America Heart Institute. This group constituted 14.6% of the total experience. The operative (thirty day) mortality was 1.3%, which is not significantly greater than that experienced by male patients operated on concurrently. A total follow-up of 2,015 patient-years was obtained. The incidence of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction was 2.0 per 100 patient-years of follow-up, and the incidence of repeat coronary artery bypass was 0.8 per 100 patient-years. The actuarial survival was 90% at 5 years and 75.3% at 10 years. Of the 46 deaths (early or late), 58.7% were cardiac in nature. Although the absolute survival of women is as good as that observed in men, the female patients did not achieve the expected survival pattern of a matched (for age and sex) general population as is observed in our male patients undergoing coronary artery bypass. These results obtained with coronary artery bypass justify the use of similar criteria for the application of this therapy in men and women.