Meds Equal to Surgery in Ischemic Heart Failure

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: April 04, 2011 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

NEW ORLEANS -- Surgery for ischemic heart failure doesn't save more lives than medical therapy alone, according to the first randomized comparison of these treatments in the modern era. The trial, conducted among more than 1,200 patients, found that optimal medical therapy alone equalled coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for all-cause mortality among patients with coronary artery disease and low ejection fraction (41% versus 36%,P=0.12), reported Eric J. Velazquez, MD, of the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, N.C., and colleagues./.../