Quality of Life After Heart Disease Surgery

Two surgeries for coronary artery disease provide similar relief from chest pain, a study says. The study included 1,800 people. All of them had narrowed arteries. This can cause severe chest pain. It also puts people at risk for heart attack. About half of people in the study had coronary artery bypass graft surgery, or CABG. In this surgery, blood flow is rerouted to avoid narrowed arteries. The other half of people in the study had their affected arteries held open with wire-mesh tubes called stents. The stents released a drug that helps to reduce scarring of the artery walls. Both surgeries helped. About 7 of every 10 people who had the surgeries were free from chest pain a year later. The study was published March 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine.