A new study indicates that traditional heart bypass surgery is as efficacious as "beating heart" surgery.
In the past, surgeons connected their patients to a heart-lung machine, stopping the patient’s heart from beating during the operation.
Some have voiced concern that this practice might lead to mental deterioration. Beating heart bypass surgery, it was believed, was better for the patient because the heart continues to beat while the surgeon completes the procedure.
A study of low-risk patients who had a traditional bypass five years ago showed the same level of mental skills as patients who received beating heart surgery, according to a new study from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands. Both groups demonstrated equal decline in memory, attention, and manual dexterity.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that both groups of patients demonstrated similar results in terms of longevity, as well. Researchers found that 18 percent of patients who had traditional heart bypass surgery suffered a heart attack, stroke or heart-related death during the five-year follow-up period, compared to 21 percent of the patients who had beating heart surgery.
After five years’ time, the study concluded, beating heart bypass surgery did not have an impact on the patient’s cognitive or cardiac outcome, reports WebMD.