Work Status after Coronary Bypass Surgery

The rate of return to work was assessed in a series of patients with coronary heart disease randomly allocated to medical and surgical treatment groups of 50 patients each. Sixteen of the medical and 19 of the surgical patients were already retired at entry and did not resume work later. Only 9 patients (26%) on medical therapy were working at 2-year follow-up in contrast to 18 (60%) working after bypass surgery (p less than 0.05). Functional classification of angina pectoris and exercise tolerance on ergometry were significantly better in the surgical group, especially in the surgical subgroup at work. Repeated postoperative anigographies of the inserted grafts and native vessels disclossed that completeness of revascularization was related to work status after bypass surgery. The data suggest that a combination of coronary bypass surgery and medical therapy, when indicated, is superior to medical therapy alone in influencing the rate of working in coronary heart disease.