The Outcome of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery among Patients Hospitalized with Acute Coronary Syndrome: The Euro Heart Survey of Acute Coronary Syndrome Experience

AIM: To determine the frequency and outcomes of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery in patients with a wide spectrum of acute coronary syndromes (ACS). METHODS AND RESULTS: We prospectively enrolled 10,484 ACS patients from 103 hospitals in 25 countries across Europe and the Mediterranean basin. Of the 10,204 patients with complete data, 460 (4.5%) underwent CABG while in hospital; 3.4% had ST elevation ACS, 5.4% had non-ST elevation ACS, and 4.4% had undetermined ECG ACS (p=0.001 for non-ST elevation ACS vs. others). In general, patients who underwent CABG were more likely to be males, to have diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, a positive family history of premature coronary disease, and prior angina pectoris, but had less often prior heart failure. While in hospital, all CABG patients underwent coronary angiography and 15.2% also underwent percutaneous revascularization, as compared with 51.3 and 33.1% in the remaining patients, respectively. The in-hospital mortality was 3.7% for ACS patients who underwent CABG and 4.8% for non-CABG ACS patients (p=nonsignificant) with an adjusted odds ratio of in-hospital death for CABG patients of 1.00 (95% CI 0.59-1.61). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 4.5% of ACS patients underwent CABG during their initial hospitalization, with a greater likelihood among non-ST elevation ACS patients. Of the CABG patients, 15.2% also underwent percutaneous revascularization. The outcome of CABG patients was as good as non-CABG patients, indicating that CABG remains an effective and safe means to achieve revascularization among ACS patients in current clinical practice.