Smoking and cardiac events after venous coronary bypass surgery. A 15-year follow-up study

The long-term clinical effects of smoking and smoking cessation after venous coronary bypass surgery have not been well established.

Four hundred fifteen patients who underwent venous coronary bypass surgery between April 1976 and April 1977 were followed up prospectively for 15 years. Multivariate Cox survival analysis revealed that patients who smoked at the time of surgery had no elevated risks for clinical events compared with nonsmokers. However, smoking behavior at 1 and 5 years after surgery appeared to be an important predictor of clinical events during the subsequent follow-up period. Compared with patients who stopped smoking since surgery, smokers at 1 year after surgery had more than twice the risk for myocardial infarction and reoperation. Patients who were still smoking at 5 years after surgery had even more elevated risks for myocardial infarction and reoperation and a significantly increased risk for angina pectoris compared with patients who stopped smoking since surgery and patients who never smoked. Patients who started to smoke again within 5 years after surgery had increased risks for reoperation and angina pectoris. No differences in outcome were found between patients who stopped smoking since surgery and nonsmokers.

Our results show that smoking cessation after coronary bypass surgery may have important beneficial effects on clinical events during long-term follow-up.