title: Survival, clinical status and quality of life five years after coronary surgery. The ARCA study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the long-term outcomes of coronary surgery and their determinants in Spain. The objectives of this study were to evaluate clinical outcomes, quality of life and survival in a cohort of patients 5 years after undergoing a first aortocoronary bypass operation without any other associated procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients who survived the operation and whose pre- and postoperative data had been collected prospectively were followed up by telephone interview after 5 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Information was available after 5 years on 1,300 (85.2%) of the 1,525 patients who survived until hospital discharge. Of these, 13.6% had died, while 24% had either died, undergone revascularization or were readmitted because of a cardiac complaint. The cumulative survival rate (excluding the period of hospitalization) was 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.85-0.89). Mortality varied significantly with the level of preoperative risk (i.e. the EuroSCORE), to the extent that mortality in the low-risk group was equivalent to that in the general reference population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Three-quarters of patients who survived until hospital discharge after coronary surgery did not experience a major cardiac event within 5 years and their level of functioning and quality of life were good. The survival rate after the immediate postoperative period varied according to the patient's preoperative risk profile and, in low-risk patients, was equivalent to that in the general reference population.
authors.affiliation: CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Unidad de Epidemiología, Servicio de Cardiología, Hospital Universitario Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, España. aribera@vhebron.net
authors.forename: Aida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ribera
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ferreira-González
authors.forename: Purificación
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cascant
authors.forename: Josep Ramón
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Marsal
authors.forename: Bernat
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pedrol
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martínez-Useros
authors.forename: Joan M V
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pons
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Gaietà
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Permanyer-Miralda
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012042:Registries; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D016019:Survival Analysis