ABSTRACT
Coronary artery and valve disease (see Chapter 30) remain major causes of UK mortality, especially among older people. When drug therapies cannot support cardiac failure, surgery may be needed either to repair or replace damaged tissue. Cardiac surgery significantly improves quality of life (Hunt et al., 2000), older people gaining similar benefits to younger ones, although often taking longer to recover (Conaway et al., 2003). Recent advances in cardiac surgery have made surgery a viable option for more ‘high risk’ patients and procedures. While beneficial for patients, this can create apparently poor statistical comparisons against previous outcomes.
