title: Mortality, risk indicators for death, and mode of death in younger and elderly patients during five years after coronary artery bypass graft.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The number of elderly patients who may be candidates for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) for severe coronary artery disease has increased. Cardiac surgery in the elderly is a high-risk procedure because many of these patients have concomitant systemic disease and other disabilities.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The study was undertaken to evaluate mortality, risk indicators for death, and mode of death in younger and elderly patients during 5 years after CABG.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included all patients in western Sweden who underwent CABG without concomitant valve surgery and without previously performed CABG between June 1988 and June 1991. In all, 2,000 patients, of whom 953 (48%) were > or = 65 years, were divided into two age groups (< 65 years and > or = 65 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with the younger patients, the elderly had a relative risk of death of 2.3 (95% confidence interval 1.8-3.0). The increased risk of death in the elderly was significantly more marked in men, in patients with more severe angina pectoris, and in patients without a history of cerebrovascular diseases. The mode and place of death appeared similar regardless of age; neither was there marked difference in symptoms of angina pectoris among survivors 5 years after CABG.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with patients < 65 years, the elderly have more than twice as high a risk of death during the subsequent 5 years, and this risk is higher in men, in patients with severe symptoms of angina pectoris, and in those with no history of cerebrovascular disease.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Herlitz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brandrup-Wognsen
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Karlson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sjöland
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Caidahl
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartford
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haglid
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000401:mortality; D015897:Comorbidity; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000401:mortality*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology