The practice of coronary artery bypass surgery in 1980

We obtained information from 677 cardiac surgeons in the United States on the type of practice, case load, and techniques currently used for coronary bypass operations. These surgeons collectively performed 93,000 bypass operations in 1979. Less than 25% of these procedures were done in university or federal hospitals; the majority were performed in the private sector by surgeons engaged in a single specialty group practice. The mean case load in 1979 was 137 operations per surgeon, and only 46 (6.8%) did fewer than 25 bypass operations during that year. These surgeons devote a relatively small percentage of their professional activity to other areas in thoracic surgery--the majority do not perform congenital heart surgery and two thirds devote less than 10% of their professional activity to general thoracic surgery. Compared with our previous national survey done in 1975, techniques used for bypass grafting have changed considerably over the past 5 years. An increasing number of surgeons conduct cardiopulmonary bypass with an arterial input line introduced into the ascending aorta and with a single cannula for venous drainage and do not routinely vent the left ventricle. Cold chemical cardioplegia has become the technique of choice (by 91% of surgeons) for myocardial protection, sequential bypass grafts are now widely employed, and 83.2% of surgeons perform all distal anastomoses during a single period of cardioplegic arrest.