Coronary-Artery Bypass Surgery: It Works, but Why?

Abstract

Coronary artery bypass surgery is overwhelmingly successful in the symptomatic treatment of angina pectoris. Eighty to 90% of patients who undergo this procedure experience relief of symptoms and 60-70% become pain-free. Experience has shown that not all the desired effects follow revascularization and that there is a discrepancy between the almost universal relief of pain and the reversal of the other manifestations of ischemia.