Women have higher risk of death after heart surgery

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Higher rates of infection might explain why women do less well after bypass surgery.
It is already known that women who undergo a heart bypass are more likely than men to die during hospitalization. This might be because of differences in artery size or from variations between men and women with respect to other diseases and conditions.

A team at the University of Michigan has been looking at whether infection might explain this disparity. They studied a group of over 9,000 men and women having heart bypass over a year period. The findings showed that 12.2 per cent had an infection during their hospitalization.

Women were more likely to develop an infection than men - 16.1 per cent compared with 9.8 per cent. More patients with infection died in the hospital - 11.9 per cent compared to four per cent without infection. These higher mortality rates continued through 100 days of follow up. Men with an infection were three times more likely to die than those without. Women with an infection were 1.8 times more likely to die than those without. Infection is clearly an important issue in considering the outcome of heart surgery and all possible must be done to avoid it.

Source
Archives of Internal Medicine 27th February 2006 Volume 166 pages 437-443