[Socioeconomic benefits of coronary dilatation]

The socioeconomic benefits of coronary artery dilatation to the individual and the society in general, were assessed in a review of our first 158 cases in which we studied the length of in-patient treatment, the period off work and the number of patients returning to work after six months and one year. The population included 114 men and 44 women with an average age of 50 +/- 10 years, a history of anginal pain of 18.10 +/- 26.13 months, and of resistant angina of 4.33 +/- 5.72 months. Only one artery was diseased in 130 patients (82%), the remaining patients having multivessel disease. Left ventricular function was normal in 76% of the patients under study. Fifteen patients had already finished working at the time of dilatation and were excluded from the study. One hundred and nineteen (84%) of the 142 patients followed-up were still working before dilatation and 112 (79%) returned to work after 6 months. Of the 94 patients with a good initial result of dilatation, 76 returned to work (81%); 12 initial failures were treated medically, and 6 (50%) returned to work (p less than 0.05); 36 initial failures underwent aorto-coronary bypass surgery and 30.83% are back at work. At one year, 89% of the 103 patients followed-up were working, whilst only 83% of this subgroup were working before dilatation. The 91% of the 69 initial successes have returned to work; 71% of the 7 failures treated medically and 95% of the 27 failures who then underwent bypass surgery, have also returned to work.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)