Comparison of Outcomes of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Versus Drug-Eluting Stent Implantation in Patients With Severe Left Ventricular Dysfunction

The optimal revascularization strategy for patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) and severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction (ejection fraction ≤35%) remains unclear. We compared the effects of coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG, n = 442) versus percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents (n = 469) on long-term mortality in 911 patients with significant CAD and severe LV dysfunction using large real-world registry data. Databases of 3 real-world registries were merged for a patient-level meta-analysis. Primary outcome was death from any cause; secondary outcomes were death from cardiac causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, or repeat revascularization. At a median follow-up of 37.3 months, the risk of all-cause death (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 0.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.31 to 0.61; p <0.001) was significantly lower in the CABG group than in the PCI group after adjustment. Similar findings were observed with regard to the risks of death from cardiac cause (adjusted HR 0.49; 95% CI 0.33 to 0.73; p <0.001) and repeat revascularization (adjusted HR 0.08; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.20; p <0.001). However, there were no significant differences in the risks of myocardial infarction and stroke between the 2 groups. The superiority of CABG over PCI was particularly pronounced in patients receiving β blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blockers than those who are not. In conclusion, among patients with significant CAD and severe LV dysfunction, CABG showed a lower risk of all-cause death, cardiac-cause death, and repeat revascularization compared with PCI with drug-eluting stents.