![Surgery Superior to Medical Therapy for Severe Heart Disease]()
Heart attacks and coronary artery disease produce a reduction in blood flow (ischemia) to the left ventricle (the heart’s main pumping chamber), making it enlarged and weak (cardiomyopathy)—an often-lethal condition called ischemic cardiomyopathy. In a major study published in April, in the New England Journal of Medicine, investigators found that coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) offers a significant survival advantage over medical therapy alone to patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. One of the study’s chief investigators was Robert Michler, M.D. The study enrolled more than 1,200 patients who were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups. After a median follow-up period of nearly 10 years, 66.1 percent of patients in the medical-therapy group had died compared to 58.9 percent of patients in the CABG treatment group—a statistically significant (p=0.02) difference. Dr. Michler is professor and chair of surgery and of cardiovascular & thoracic surgery at Einstein, surgeon-in-chief at Montefiore and co-director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Heart and Vascular Care.
Posted on: Wednesday, May 18, 2016