Persistence of improved exercise tolerance and degree of revascularization after coronary bypass surgery. A prospective randomized study.

Abstract

Exercise tolerance was repeatedly determined over a 2-year period in a series of 100 patients with coronary heart disease randomly allocated for medical therapy and coronary bypass surgery. The surgical group had a consistently better exercise tolerance than the medical group during the whole follow-up. Completeness of the revascularization, assessed by repeated graft and native vessel angiography, resulted in a marked improvement whereas incompletely revascularized patients exhibited only a marginal improvement which, nevertheless, to some degree exceeded the result of medical management alone. It is concluded that coronary bypass surgery and medical therapy, when indicated, result in markedly better exercise tolerance than medical management alone. This improvement persists up two years after the operation and is largely dependent on the completeness of the revascularization.