Heart Bypass Surgery Worse for Women, Study Finds

Women are significantly more likely to die after heart bypass surgery than men, even if the men are just as old and sick when they go under the knife, says a massive study released Wednesday.

Concluding for the first time that gender alone is a risk, doctors now must figure out why.

“I don’t know the answer and I don’t think anyone does,” said study author Dr. Fred Edwards, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Florida who is preparing to research just what kills the women to see if it could be prevented.

The risk of death from bypass surgery within days after the operation is very low for men and women, so the study shouldn’t scare anyone away from what often is a lifesaving operation, stressed Dr. Sidney Smith, past president of the American Heart Assn.

But the fact that women fare worse is a disturbing finding that must be explored quickly, Smith said. Bypass surgery may not be the only problem: Doctors are finding early signs that women also do more poorly after angioplasties, in which a balloon clears clogged arteries, he said.

Edwards tapped the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ national database for the medical records of 344,000 patients, 97,000 of them women, who had heart bypasses between 1994 and 1996.

About 4.5% of the women died after surgery compared with 2.6% of the men, Edwards reported Wednesday in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Overall, the women were older and had a higher incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure and other complicating illnesses.