Do women fare worse than men following cardiac surgery?
Reviewers: Komal Patel, MD Fellow, Cardiothoracic Anesthesia Mark A. Chaney, MD Associate Professor Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care University of Chicago Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, accounting for almost 250,000 deaths annually. Despite advances in cardiopulmonary bypass and postoperative care that appear to have reduced perioperative mortality in men, the perioperative mortality after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in women remains twice that of men.1 The questions of whether and why women have higher probabilities of poor outcomes after CABG have been recently and repeatedly asked. Numerous studies have demonstrated an increased hospital mortality after CABG in women when compared to men. The Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) Registry showed that women had an operative mortality of 5.3% compared with 2.5% for men.2 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Cardiac Surgery Database, which retrospectively e
