The results of coronary artery surgery are in general very good. Most people who have an operation rapidly return to an excellent quality of life, are free of angina and remain so for a considerable length of time afterwards. Sophisticated quality of life studies suggest that successful coronary artery surgery returns most people to a quality of life identical to that of an aged-matched, healthy population. There are some risks associated with coronary surgery as there are with any operation. In general the risks are small. Overall the mortality associated with coronary artery surgery in the UK is around 2%. However the risks are different in different patients - young patients with coronary disease but no other illnesses will have a lower risk than older patients with multiple other problems. The risk in any given instance will be discussed with you by your surgeon. The results of surgery in patients who have undergone surgery by the surgeons in our consortium are given in the audit ('What are our results?') section of this website.

As well as the small risk of mortality associated with coronary artery surgery there are also some other potential complications, which include bleeding, infection, renal failure and stroke. These complications are again uncommon and will be discussed with you in more detail by your surgeon prior to your operation.

After their operation people are usually on the Intensive care unit overnight and in hospital for about a week. Some go home sooner. Before people are discharged from hospital they will be mobile around the ward and will be able to go up and down stairs. After discharge from hospital we encourage patients to do lots of walking, but to take great care of lifting, carrying or pushing, as the breast bone takes 3 months to heal fully. You will be given extensive information about what you should and should not do, before you are discharged from hospital. We routinely see people back in the outpatient clinic 6 weeks after surgery and by that stage people have usually recovered well from their operation and are often walking many miles at a time.

It is very unusual to suffer with angina initially after surgery, because the heart is getting more blood flow and therefore more oxygen. However with time some people do get a return of their angina symptoms. This can be for two reasons

1.     Because they have progressive narrowing of their original coronary arteries

2.     Because they develop narrowings in the bypass grafts

Often when angina returns after surgery it can be treated relatively easily with medications. It is also sometimes possible to treat localised narrowings by using a balloon (angioplasty). Occasionally people require a second or sometimes a third coronary artery operation.

To decrease the risk of developing recurrent angina it is important to make sure all the risk factors mentioned above are treated as well as they can be. To this end patients are usually left on a small number of drugs after surgery. These include

1.     Aspirin - this acts on the small particles in the blood called platelets to make them less sticky

2.     Drugs to treat elevated cholesterol - it is important that cholesterol is treated down to normal levels

3.     ACE inhibitors - if the heart muscle is not functioning normally it important to optimise the pumping action of the heart muscle by using a group of drugs known as ACE inhibitors