Death rates for heart surgery fall despite risk increase

Published on Wednesday 29 July 2009 21:58

DEATH rates among people undergoing heart surgery are falling, even though surgeons are taking on more high-risk patients, a report said today.

People undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery, which accounts for about 60 per cent of all heart surgery in adults, are less likely to die despite more elderly patients being operated on.

Every year, 28,000 of the operations – which involve taking a vessel from the chest or leg to use as a graft – are performed in the UK.

Today's report found that, in 2008, 25 per cent of all patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery were over 75 – a rise of 10 per cent on the number in 1999. The number of people over 80 having the surgery is also rising, making up 4.4 per cent of all patients undergoing this type of operation.

There are more people with diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure having the operation, which all carry extra risks.

Despite these rises, the chance of a person dying has fallen from 2.6 per cent in 2001, to 1.9 per cent in 2004 to 1.5 per cent in 2008.

There has also been a marked fall in death rates among patients over the age of 75, from 5 per cent in 2004 to 3.4 per cent in 2008.

Today's report, from the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery, contains complete coverage of all NHS hospitals undertaking adult heart surgery in the UK.

The database on which the report is based contains just over 400,000 operation records.

The report found that, between 2001 and 2008, there was a 50 per cent increase in the proportion of coronary surgery patients who were diabetic.

The proportion of coronary patients with high blood pressure also increased, from less than 60 per cent of cases to nearly 75 per cent.

Meanwhile, 75 per cent of patients undergoing an isolated coronary artery bypass surgery were overweight and about a third were obese.