[French modalities of myocardial revascularisation in 2001]

French modalities of myocardial revascularization were unknown, whereas beneficial effect on outcome was controversial. The study describes current practices in 2001 and analyzes those data according to regional coronary heart disease incidence and mortality.

Data are obtained from the French hospital national database (PMSI). Mortality is obtained from French mortality registry, and myocardial infarction incidence is estimated with French registries of MONICA project.

Myocardial revascularization utilization fluctuate from 25% of patients hospitalized for coronary disease in Limousin to more than 40% of patients in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA), Languedoc-Roussillon and Ile-de-France. Standardized rate per 100,000 individuals is 109 in Pays de la Loire and 309 in Corse. Medical care offers seem to influence the practice. In the six regions where the rates are the lower, the density of interventional unit and on-pump center are below the national average, and the cardiologist density is very low. Consequences on regional clinical outcome of coronary heart disease are discussed based on mortality rate and levels of evidenced based medicine in myocardial revascularization.

For the first time, we describe a wide variation of regional practices for myocardial revascularization in France. A part of those variations can be attributed to regional differences in medical care offers. Finally, the impact on clinical outcome appears clearly but seems limited. Cardiovascular prevention strategy remains of first line importance and emphasizes this main mission of cardiologists.