A new study that monitors patients who received "on-pump" or "off-pump" coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) over a 10-year period reveals that outcomes between the two forms of heart bypass surgery are not much different. Led by Laurie Shroyer, PhD, Professor of Surgery in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, and Northport Veteran Affairs (VA) Medical Center WOC Health Science Officer, the findings are published early online in JAMA Surgery.

For the past 20 years surgeons have debated whether traditional on-pump surgery, which uses a heart-lung machine to circulate the blood while the heart is stopped enabling surgeons to more easily complete CABG; or off-pump, which eliminates complications potentially caused by the heart lung machine yet makes the procedure more technically difficult. Monitoring the post-CABG outcomes of all original ROOBY trial patients, this phase IV clinical trial represents the largest U.S.-based, multicenter, randomized clinical trial comparing off-pump versus on-pump patients.

The researchers tracked more than 1,000 veterans for each group—those treated by way of on-pump and those with off-pump procedures over 10 years. These Veterans are a national cohort from 18 VA Centers. The average age at the time of surgery for both groups was about 63.

According to the authors, no significant 10-year treatment-related differences were documented for any primary or secondary post-CABG endpoint rates. Endpoints included repeat CABG, other heart revascularization procedures, and changes in cardiac symptoms. The death rates at 10 years were 34.2% for the off-pump group and 31.1 for the on-pump group.