What Are The Risks And Benefits Of Bypass Surgery?

Dr. McCarthy answers the question: 'Risks And Benefits Of Bypass Surgery?'

By
Patrick McCarthy, M.D., Chief, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Co-Director, Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
December 24, 2008, 1:56 PM ET
1 min read

— -- Question: What are the risks and benefits of bypass surgery?

Answer: Well, anytime we do bypass surgery we have to look at what's the risk of doing the operation and what's the benefit.

The big risk that I talk to patients about is that there's a risk to the patient's life to go through it.

For the majority of patients these days, it's much lower than they would expect. The risk to their life is about one percent.

The benefit, of course, is that we expect, number one, to relieve the angina that many patients have, and we also expect that we'll be able to prolong their lives.

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