Survival, clinical status and quality of life five years after coronary surgery. The ARCA study.
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.
Ribera
Aida
A
CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Unidad de Epidemiología, Servicio de Cardiología, Hospital Universitario Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona, España. aribera@vhebron.net
Ferreira-González
Ignacio
I
Cascant
Purificación
P
Marsal
Josep Ramón
JR
Romero
Bernat
B
Pedrol
Daniel
D
Martínez-Useros
Carmen
C
Pons
Joan M V
JM
Fernández
Teresa
T
Permanyer-Miralda
Gaietà
G
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