Introduction
Heart bypass surgery is a major medical procedure that may become necessary as a last resort in cases of serious coronary artery disease. The operation is only considered in cases of advanced heart disease or a severe heart attack, when other measures (heart catheterization) are not successful. Therefore, patients undergoing bypass surgery are in many cases already seriously ill and their life expectancy is limited compared to people without heart disease. However, life expectancy can often be significantly improved by the intervention.
What is the general life expectancy after bypass surgery?
It is not possible to make a general statement about how high the life expectancy after a bypass operation on the heart is, since too many individually different influencing factors play a role. The actual operation and the first days after the operation are particularly critical. Despite all professionalism and the great experience gained in open-heart surgery, a bypass operation is a relatively high-risk procedure.
Approximately 10% of people who undergo open heart surgery die during the procedure. In addition, even after a successful operation, complications can still occur in the days following the operation, which are also life-threatening. However, if the surgery is well tolerated and the recovery period is as desired, life expectancy with a cardiac bypass can be several decades.
However, this depends largely on the patient’s age, concomitant diseases and lifestyle. Overall, in many cases the intervention can extend life expectancy by many years. Nevertheless, the heart disease cannot be cured by the procedure, so that life expectancy can never reach that of a healthy heart.
A further aspect in assessing life expectancy after a bypass operation is the blood vessel used for the bypass. Patients in whom a chest wall artery has been transplanted onto the coronary arteries have a better life expectancy than those in whom only an autologous vein from the leg could be used. The veins are not able to withstand the high strain of blood flow for as long as they should and therefore reoccur more quickly.
In some cases, years after a successful bypass procedure, a new operation may be necessary, for example if the bypass has become too narrow. In such a situation, life expectancy, which would be severely limited without a new operation, can be extended again. However, all data on life expectancy with a bypass must take into account that these are statistical data, which can vary greatly for the individual patient in both a positive and negative sense.
