title: Does coronary artery bypass grafting improve quality of life in elderly patients?
abstract: Traditional outcome measures such as long-term mortality may be of less value than symptomatic improvement in elderly patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). In this systematic review, we analyse health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as a marker of outcome after CABG. We aimed to assess the role of HRQOL tools in making recommendations for elderly patients undergoing surgery, where symptomatic and quality-of-life improvement may often be the key indications for intervention. Twenty-three studies, encompassing 4793 patients were included. Overall, elderly patients underwent CABG at reasonably low risk. Our findings, therefore, support the conclusion that performing CABG in the elderly may be associated with significant improvements in HRQOL. In order to overcome previous methodological limitations, future work must clearly define and stringently follow-up this elderly population, to develop a more robust, sensitive and specialty-specific HRQOL tool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Kamran
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baig
authors.forename: Leanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Harling
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Papanikitas
authors.forename: Saina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Attaran
authors.forename: Hutan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ashrafian
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Casula
authors.forename: Thanos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Athanasiou
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D018579:Patient Selection; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Coronary artery bypass grafting; Elderly; Health-related quality of life