Clinical and Angiographic Determinants of Early Mortality Related to Aortocoronary Bypass Surgery.

Clinical and angiographic features were identified that influences early mortality in 807 patients who underwent aortocoronary bypass grafting alone among the first 1000 consecutive patients subjected to aortocoronary bypass operations at the Montreal Heart Institute. The early mortality was 4.7% and was related to the patient's age, the duration of the illness from its first clinical manifestation, certain types of clinical presentation, electrocardiographic findings, the number of obstructed arteries and the ejection fraction. The influence of the number of obstructed arteries appeared to be independent of other factors, including the number of grafts and the degree of correction. Early mortality was not influenced by risk factors such as lipid abnormalities, hypertension or diabetes, by the history of previous myocardial infarction or the number of grafts.