[The aorto-coronary bypass in the elderly patient]

In the FRG one person every ten is more than 70-years old; the average life expectancy, often underestimated, is about 11 years for the 70-years old and 6 years for 80-years old. The modern approach to coronary disease has broadened the indications for coronary artery bypass grafting in the elderly. The present report, studying 152 patients more than 70-years old, suggests the usefulness of a myocardial revascularization in the elderly; it remains to define the relative contraindications (renal failure, high LVEDP, valve replacement). However, the symptomatic improvement we could achieve (95.45%) seems to be a good result, considering the low CABG-related postoperative lethality (1.9%). The trend of our results regardless of 5 years survival is also encouraging (85.1%).